We prepared a complete Thanksgiving dinner to take to some of the people we knew didn’t have anywhere to go. We planned on six people but couldn’t get one of them to answer the phone and found out he doesn’t live in the motel where we thought he lives. We, of course, took food for our blind lady and her son. She was thankful and told us she wouldn’t have had anything without us. One brother works the nightshift but stayed up so he could get the food from us. It makes your heart heavy to see how little they have in a little motel room. The last place is our friend that lived in his truck, thank goodness he is sharing a motel room with a buddy this winter. Brother Gregor is about 6’ 5”, he is a big man. His buddy is half his size but wears Brother Gregor’s clothes so he can come to church with him. I guess he has set a baptismal date. His name is Brian. Brian blessed us over and over. Brother Gregor has a job as a bell ringer so he was at work. He hugged me at church today (he isn’t supposed to hug me!) and told me I could make money with my strawberry dish! It was only pretzel salad, I guess I make good Jello! We didn’t intend for this to be a big deal, just wanted to make sure they had a meal but we don’t even come close to understanding what it means to them to be thought of and to have a home- cooked dinner. They look out for one another too. Brother Jewel is the one that asked us if we had something for Brother Pinson and told us he didn’t live where we thought he was but we still couldn’t find him. I have gained a new appreciation for the downtown motels. Brother Gregor sees being in one of them as a great blessing. All I saw was the urine on the floor of the elevator. He was expressing to us today how blessed he has been lately to get this job and to be off the street. He is so grateful to God for his many blessings. We are spoiled.
Thursday we made rolls and pies and a huge fruit salad. The dinner Sister Beutler was planning for 35 people increased to 48! I am pretty sure Sister Beutler could divide loaves and fishes! They went around the table and said what they are thankful for. Once again, it was a very humbling experience. There were Elders and Sisters there who had dinner appointments but Sister Beutler had told them that if they had an investigator or less-active that had nowhere to go they could bring them to the church. There were several that came. The sister missionaries that live in our apartment complex asked if they could stop by later that night. They came over and we played “Phase Ten” before they had to be in their apartment. We were tired but it was a fun few days of staying busy. We were able to Facetime as most of the family was having dessert. How grateful we are for our many blessings too!
We are working on new lists for new wards, we are going to new areas of town. The people respond in the same way (no thanks) but we are knocking new doors.
I tried to burn the apartment down but it didn’t work. I forgot and left the turkey carcass boiling on the stove (for soup) and went to knock doors. We came home to the fire alarm screaming and a smoke- filled apartment. Thank goodness there was no fire or the sprinklers would have turned on but now we smell like we have been camping for a week. Dumb! (and they think I can take over for Sister Beutler)
Funny story for the week: We have a new couple as downstairs neighbors. After three days of cooking for Thanksgiving Elder Hardman tells me that we need to take a meal or something to the neighbors. I told him we didn’t need to take a meal! He repeats, “a meal”. I said, “No, a treat will be enough!” Again he says, a meal! Why is he insisting we take another meal somewhere?! Then he says, “isn’t that his name? Ahmil?” ha, ha, ha! I am not having a great week!
Anyway,
The gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
Pictures:
The aftermath of our dinner delivery, Sister Beutler’s Thanksgiving, the white stuff (or our Southern
California sister’s idea of a MoD)
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