Letter #50

Letter from Larry:

Dear Family,

Mom is at Women's Conference right now so I thought I would be a good time to write a letter. It has been awhile. I'll begin by giving an update on Grandpa Hardman and Grandpa Bartlett. This might be repetitive for some of you but we're not sure what each of you have been told about them recently.

Grandpa Hardman - He had a bad urinary infection; hence, the doctor put him on an antibiotic. It cleared up the urinary infection but had a side effect, which set him back again. I guess the medication made his heels weak so that when he reached up to a cabinet for some medicine he tore his ACL. He has been in a boot for a couple of weeks and has been asked to refrain from walking during this time period. He seemed in pretty good spirits when I spoke with him a few days ago. He should now be able to start doing some walking but will probably be in the boot for six month.

Grandpa Bartlett - Had another heart attack a couple of weeks ago. He was in the hospital for a few days and is now in a rehab facility. Grandma wants him home soon but he is still pretty week, so there is no scheduled date as to when he might be able to go home yet. He does seem to be stabilized. We'll have been here for a year, in one more week. We have to laugh as we look at the rolling hills, as they are now beginning to turn green. They were green and beautiful when we arrived last April; however, when we said that to others in the area they would look at us like we didn't know what we were talking about. It only took a couple of weeks and those beautiful green hills were all brown. We are excited to see them green again. It is also much lighter in the evenings so we are able to knock doors, helping with the ward lists, at a much later time. Our rate of finding people home is much improved.

We drove to Fallon on Wednesday to do some JustServe training with the Zone Leaders there. The drive is a little more than an hour so Mom played two talks from a Brother Hank Smith. I hadn't heard of him but I guess he is a pretty popular speaker. The young missionaries here quote him quite often. These talks were good for me so I thought I would share some of the focal points.  I was going through a bit of a downer because I felt bad I wasn't there to help with Grandpa Hardman, and to help with Grandpa Bartlett, and to help with Clay/Katie's new baby, and to help with Jason/Xanna's move, and to be there to help with Garrett/Shalene's new baby, etc. Get the picture. We know each of you have situations in which we are not there to help with; and this weighs on us. Well, the first talk made reference to the time that the Anti-Nephi Lehites (Alma 24:16) buried their swords "deep in the earth". Brother Smith suggested that these Laminates were addicted to war and the shedding of blood. They had to bury them weapons deep so they wouldn't be tempted to use them again. He talked about how we all have our own "swords" which need to be buried deep. In the next talk, he referenced Mark. This is where Christ walked on the water towards the ship, which contained his disciples. He spoke to them, as he approached, "Be of Good Cheer." Brother Smith suggests that this is a commandment for all of us to "Be of Good Cheer". Don't dwell on the things we can't control but be happy as we proceed with the things we can control. These talks helped me. Maybe we'll have to order all of his talks. Most of them are towards the youth; however, that is probably at my learning level. We are looking forward to being home but I also realize I need to make the most of the six months I have left and to do what I can to help the missionaries, the members, help in our service opportunities and as we try to fellowship others.

I'll quote one more scripture and then I'll stop my preaching. Mom and I thought that it was clever when we used the "Oh Thank Heavens for 7-11" sign, after we had been here 7 months. Well, we had the missionaries use this same slogan when talking about Alma "And he shall come forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people". Very powerful, and hits right to the core of what the Savior has done for us. "Oh Thank Heavens for 7-11".

Well, I get to go help take down the tables and the chairs this evening (which were set out for the Women's Conference); so I better get changed.

Mom and I love you all so very much! We plead with Heavenly Father each night that you are safe, that you are happy, that you are keeping yourselves worthy and most importantly, that you are doing those things that are helping you to develop a closer relationship with the Savior and your Heavenly Father.

Love,
Dad

Letter from Denice:

Dear Family,

Larry wrote my letter this week. I realize that we do the same things so if Larry writes about it there is nothing else to tell! : )

So instead, I will share a story with you.

Did you pay attention? Can you answer these questions without looking at the story?

1. Where were Fingledope and Pribin?
2. What were they doing?
3. What happened to Fingledope?
4. What was the dutty strezzle doing?

I just thought I would share some of the clever training we receive at District meeting. Our District leader, Elder Hiatt wrote and illustrated this fun story and had Elder Hardman read it out loud to us and then we were to answer the questions. We, of course, didn’t have a clue what the story was about or what the answers to the questions were. Our training was on teaching for understanding. These young missionaries are amazing at teaching the gospel in simple terms without being too simple. They are fun and creative in their teaching. We had District meeting and then Zone Conference this week so we had a great week of learning.

We heard today that the Harding’s came to church today! This was happy news for us. We also were able to go teach Brother Jameson again with the Sisters. He was able to go to the Temple last week to do baptism for the dead. His Bishop is teaching and preparing him to receive the priesthood. Sister Meyer shared D&C 50:24 with him. “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” We feel so blessed to be able to see the light growing brighter and brighter in Brother Jameson.

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Ps. Funny story, I noticed on my phone that it said it would take longer to get to work because of heavy traffic. I wondered where “work” was, it is the address to the chapel! : ) That lets you know how often we drive to the church.