Letter #26

A good week is a busy week, so this was a good week! The Food Bank of Northern Nevada named “Just Serve” as their association’s partner of the month. There will be a plaque and some award for the higher ups in “Just Serve” but the Volunteer Coordinator, Angie Medina wanted to thank the missionaries that help with the Mobil Pantries personally. We had to set up four separate times for her to meet with four separate zones to accomplish this. Last Tuesday we had a presentation at the first of District Meeting in the Reno North zone, then we met with them at the end of District meeting for the Reno zone. We will repeat this on Tuesday for the Sparks East and Sparks West zones. Angie and Marina (another lady we work with) came and participated in the beginning of the meeting. They sang the opening hymn with us (Oh, My Father- there’s a Plan of Salvation lesson right there), the prayer and the recitation. Then they gave a lovely thank you to the missionaries. They told how many people they help feed every week. They told how the other volunteers always ask if the young missionaries are coming. They thanked them for being so willing to help and set things up and are so kind to the “clients”. We arrived a little early for the Reno Zone and so Elder Hardman took them on a little tour of the church, showed them the Chapel and explained different rooms in the building. These are such cute women. We just love them. They treat everyone with gratitude and kindness. We have enjoyed getting to know them and working with them. We had warned them that at the end we would kneel for prayer, yep they even joined us in kneeling. The missionaries expressed their appreciation to them also. The Food Bank is meaningful service for these young missionaries. Elder Hardman has to do a month end report on the missionaries’ service hours. They are all doing so well. Quincy zone has always had the most hours but the Sparks West zone beat them last month. We are proud of these missionaries. They do so much!

Wednesday was bittersweet. It was our last day teaching English as a Second Language. Our student that is progressing and is committed, is heading home to Peru. Our other lady had her schedule change at work, so she is done with lessons. This makes me sad to think we are done but we are also getting other responsibilities so it comes at a good time. We have enjoyed these two ladies but I don’t think I want to start over with new people either. We have learned a lot teaching English!

We have now been asked by the Mission President to extend ourselves to the rest of the Stake. Elder Hardman sent a letter to all of the ward mission leaders. We have already met with the YSA ward and will meet with another ward this week. We can’t “force” them to use us but we are hoping this opens up some new opportunities. There is a rumor going around that the Stake is going to see some ward divisions so we feel like we are a little caught up in a transition time where they don’t want to commit too much before the changes. We know part of getting ready for the changes was to get control of the records in the Keystone ward. That has been accomplished as so we will see what the future brings.

Friday was MLC. We fed over 60 people! That was a busy day! I have also been told by the Mission President that we will have that responsibility when the Beutlers leave. I have decided that MLS missionary means, "Makes Lunches and Sweets”. Sister Beutler has decided that I need to do MLC in December before she leaves to see how I do. Hmmm, I didn’t know I would have to “try out” for the position. We have heard that a Tongan couple is coming to serve in November. I think that Sister would make an excellent Food missionary! : )

We attended two different baptisms on Saturday. We did the refreshments for the one in the Keystone Ward. (Sweets) We went to a meeting with the YSA missionary committee and were asked to go with the Sisters that night to meet a young man in the ward that might need our assistance. When we got to his home for the appointment his sister answered and said she was sick and that the brother was sleeping. Oh well.

Today is our day to take the blind lady to church. It is always an adventure. She tends to talk out loud about anything that is on her mind. It is a bit of a ramble. Today was no exception. Everyone is kind to her but it is distracting for the poor teacher. We did enjoy the feud she seems to be having with her neighbor. We drove up and there is a big sign in her window, pointing toward the neighbors’ house and accusing them of all sorts of behaviors and the neighbor has a similar sign pointing towards her house. I took pictures but the neighbor’s didn’t turn out so well because Elder Hardman was telling me that I was going to get shot for taking a picture of the house. Reno is a fun place to be!

We did have a sweet moment at church. We looked up and our upstairs neighbors walked in. They came and sat by us. They quickly ran away right after the closing hymn but they came!

How has your week been? Any adventures in your life? We would love to hear. We also want to hear about fun group activities. We are taking marshmallow baseball tomorrow for a P-day activity. The zone is complaining that they are bored doing the same old things every week. Send us your fun ideas!

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

p.s. The other picture is a sign I saw on a door we knocked.