Peace. I bless you with peace. These are the words that were said in the baby blessing at church yesterday. It may sound like a strange thing to bless a new baby with but after our week it touched my heart to hear his words. A blessing of peace in today’s world is a wonderful blessing.
We were asked to go with the Elders to a downtown motel where they were bringing a Book of Mormon to a referral. We never know exactly what the circumstances are when we go with the Elders. I don’t know if they knew the circumstances, but the person requesting the Book of Mormon is a young, very pregnant woman with a 15 month old little girl. She and her husband moved into the motel two weeks ago and he took off, supposedly to work at Burning Man. She has been there alone and scared. She is a member but hasn’t attended since she was a teenager. I don’t know if she called because she was afraid and wanted someone in the church to come by or if she really wanted a Book of Mormon. We met with her over by the Riverwalk. She didn’t want us to come to the motel in case the number was bogus that she called. It was the first time she had ventured that far from the motel. She told us how she had a prostitute ask to use her phone and had seen drug deals going on in front of the motel. (lovely environment). Her little girl is darling. She was telling us about herself. She has gestational diabetes. The baby is due any day. She had called and they told her that she would need a car seat to bring the new baby home from the hospital. They will give her a new car seat but she had to bring a car to install it in. Let’s see, she can’t bring the baby home without a car seat and she can’t get a car seat because she doesn’t have a car. We told her we would come and get her to go get the car seat. This turned out to be quite an adventure! There is no parking in front of her motel so picture us trying to load a very pregnant woman, a stroller and a car seat with a 15 month old in downtown traffic, that was exciting. We took her to the hospital and the man installing the car seats was onery and cussed her out for the car seat she had the 15 month old in. It was unsafe. She was given two new, appropriate car seats. He was not happy about putting them in the Jeep. He kept telling us that our car wasn’t really made for two car seats and a passenger in the back. (we know) Finally we were done and ready to drop her off again but he had installed the car seats so tightly that we couldn’t get them out! We dropped she and the baby off, drove to a street with parking, undid the car seats, drove back and I carried the seats up to her room while Elder Hardman circled the block a few times. Her motel room was immaculate. (I don’t see that very often here) I was pretty bold about trying to see if she wanted out, her husband had lied to her about putting a deposit down on an apartment and she said he is always lying to her about some pretty big things, but no, she wants to stay with him. She cancelled her next appointment with the Elders, maybe she just needed help getting the car seats. When the father blessed his baby with peace I thought of this young girl. She is alone and afraid but she doesn’t know how to find peace, even when it shows up in a little Jeep.
We also received sad news last week that the lady we have helped so much, taking her to the store, the Pharmacy, the Doctors, died. We don’t know any of the details. Her health wasn’t good and she had been blacking out and falling a lot. The Elders had called her about an appointment and her sister answered and told them she was dead. We know she is in a much better place than her downtown motel. We know she was grateful to have been baptized. We did what we could to try to lift her burdens. I liked her and will miss her. We have looked for an obituary, there is no news about her. It’s so odd to think that she can be gone and really no one cares. She had never been back to church after her baptism so the ward doesn’t know her. The Sisters had asked us to help her and that is what we were doing. I wonder what will happen to her cat, he was her dear companion. I hope her sister finds him a good home. All of this is sad, but I have still felt at peace about her because I know she had a good heart and had a testimony of the hope and peace the gospel brings.
We also received news this morning that Sister Johnson, the mom of our membership clerk that has helped us so much, passed away. She was doing so well after she fell and broke her hip. She had even come to church last week. She was one of the strengths in this ward. She was so loving and accepting of us. We will miss her and the ward will definitely miss her. The contrast of her life and service to others and the feeling of peace in her passing are remarkably different from the other feelings we have had this week. A life well lived brings peace.
We did have fun this week too. We were able to give some training on the “Just Serve” program to the zone leaders at MLC on Friday. AND, we met Rulon’s family in Elko! We stayed in a hotel and the kids enjoyed swimming. We went to a park for them to play, we furnished them with some Nerf-type guns so they could shoot each other. We went to church and saw an Elder that was one of the cute Elders that helped us move in. We just found out that he is transferring back into our zone tomorrow. He introduced me to his companion like this, “Remember how I told you that Sister Hardman made us “Café Rio”? This is Sister Hardman!” It’s always about food! Asher bore his testimony in the meeting. He did such a good job! He has no fear. I hugged him a lot hoping that would rub off on me. We went for a Sunday hike. Don’t let Rulon pick the hike. It was beautiful but a tough hike! His children are amazing hikers. Next time I am taking the nature walk. We were introduced to “Killer Bunnies”. It is their new favorite game. We played but really didn’t know what we were doing. Sage told us that Paisley had won the game at the last family dinner but that she was clueless. We were clueless too. It was so great to spend time with them. The drive back to Reno today was a sad one.
I have had this hymn come to mind a lot this week.
“Sweet is the peace the gospel brings to seeking minds and true. With light refulgent on its wings, it clears the human view.”
“Its laws and precepts are divine and show a Father’s care. Transcendent love and mercy shine in each injunction there.”
I am so grateful for the peace the gospel brings. The Gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
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