We just told the Beutlers good-bye! They leave for home in the morning. We are so grateful for the love and mentoring we have received from them. I will miss her even more when we plan, prepare and serve the meals for the missionaries. She gave me a copy of her magic cookbook. She has spent two years serving the most amazing meals. We can’t fill their shoes but we are going to give it our best.
It was a fun, busy week. The mission Christmas party was at the Institute building on Tuesday. All of the missionaries, except for those serving in the east of the mission come to Reno for the Christmas party. We began the day with Zone Conference. Our new senior couple, the Vaiavakas sang two songs for us. We heard great talks from the missionaries, a sweet musical number from the missionaries and testimonies from the Sisters that will be leaving this month. There is only one Elder leaving this time and he is serving in Ely so it was Sisters only. This gets harder each time now as we know these missionaries that are leaving. You wonder how the mission will survive without them and then new missionaries step up and fill your heart. After zone conference we fed them pizza, a fruit salad and lots of goodies. We ordered 40 pizzas from Costco. Missionaries can eat a lot of pizza! They have pool, ping pong, corn-hole, air hockey at the Institute building. They also set up the 9 square court in the parking lot. They all had a great time and we only had one twisted ankle. They handed out the towels and a stocking cap at the end. It was a nice party.
We hurried home from the party because Hunter was here! It sounds like he had bad weather on the way so we were so happy to have him safely here. We had had a perfect, beautiful day for the party. It was so nice that the missionaries played outside. That was the end of the good weather. The two days that Hunter was here is was snowy and cold. We drove to Tahoe ahead of a storm. We tried to get Copper to try out the beach but it was so windy that she just was looking for cover. It was the same beach that Lori and the children played on in July. It was a much different environment than they had! There were surfers in wet suits in the water because the waves were so high! Brrr!
We tried taking Copper to the amazing dog park here but there was snow on the ground and our ever present wind. We tried a walk with her but when it started to rain Copper fled under a sage brush trying to stay dry. She is a warm weather dog. She was so good in the apartment though and kept us entertained watching her. I found out how to make time go by fast, have the family come visit for a few days. Those two days flew by and before we knew it Hunter went home. We appreciate him coming. It is a long drive for just a few days. We miss them both. It was freezing for those two days but having them here made it seem warmer.
Hunter brought us the twelve days of Christmas from the kids. We are having a great time opening a present each day. They have been clever gifts! It gives us something to look forward to at night. So far we have a family Christmas tree, the only one missing is Henna. We have warm socks, a family picture calendar, teenage mutant ninja turtle racers, and chapstick. It has been fun! Thank you!
We are feeding the Elders on Christmas Eve and the zone has different activities planned for Christmas Day and on p-day. I am grateful that Christmas falls on Sunday. It will be special to really focus on the Savior on Christmas Day! We are having a few of the senior couples come over Christmas night to play games. We only have Uno, Phase Ten and SkipBo, hope they like those games! We love each of you so much! We feel your absence but we also feel your sweet support. We are blessed to have our family!
The gospel’s true and we love you!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman
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