Monday, May 15, 2017

Letter #57

I remember talking to a Sister missionary about what she should write to her family that week. She was saying that it didn’t seem like she had anything “new” to tell them. I told her it didn’t matter what she said, they just wanted to know that she was happy and healthy and all is well. I am starting to understand how she felt though. I’m not sure I have anything “new” to tell about.

We were asked to help with a different food pantry this week so that the Reno Zone could go to the Temple. It is a food pantry that is open four days a week to provide food, clothing, pet food, diapers and a large variety of other goods to those in need. It is part of Catholic Charities but it sponsored by a diocese (?) in Lake Tahoe. They receive donations from the Northern Nevada food bank and other charities. The missionaries help every week for three hours. They always love the missionaries. We always enjoy meeting with people that donate so much of their time and resources to helping others. It’s also nice to see “first-hand” the opportunities the young missionaries have to serve in the community.

Our Temple day was on Wednesday. It is always fun to go with the missionaries to the Temple. This was the week before transfers and we know there will be a lot of changes this time to the Zone so they really enjoyed being together in the Temple. They dissolved the Quincy zone so they now travel down to Reno to participate with us in these activities. We have a BiG zone!

Thursday we went to help out at the warehouse again for the Food Bank. It was a fun group to work with this time. One man wanted to tell us how he wished his church had a missionary program. He has gone all over the world and he says no matter where he is, no matter how scary that part of the world is, he will look up and see the young missionaries walking down the street. Every chance he had he would talk to us about the missionary program. We aren’t supposed to proselyte when we go to serve but we are allowed to answer questions and everywhere we go they ask us questions! They always assume that we are somehow “over” the missionaries so when we explain that they are “over” us they gain even more admiration for these young missionaries. It’s fun to have the association of this army of valiant young men and women. They are generally admired for serving missions.

We were asked to go be with an Elder on Friday. We were told he was talking to a Doctor about a serious and sensitive health concern but when we got there he was just having a medical test done. It’s for a personal and very private thing and he and we were both confused how to handle this. Elder Hardman finally just walked back to the room with him. I sat out with the other Elder. I want to giggle sometimes about the things we are asked to do, without knowing the whole story and how they will turn out but we still just “go and do”. I don’t want to tell what it was for but it was a “new” opportunity for us. Makes me giggle. Nephi wasn’t aware how funny some of these assignments can be.

We will be doing Transfer Day this Tuesday. We only have 1 Sister coming out and 6 going home. (including a Senior Couple). We will be the senior Senior Couple after this week! We had the Spanish speaking Elders come tonight to use our equipment to call (Facetime) their families. It was fun to hear them talk to their families and tell funny stories, spiritual experiences and feel their tug from home. They really are all so remarkable. The best part of the mission is our association with them.

Happy Mother’s Day to our wonderful Moms, our daughters, daughter-in- laws, and granddaughters. What a blessing we all enjoy to know of the eternal nature of women. We love each of you so much!
The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

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