Letter #16

“It’s like herding cats!” These are the last words of advice from Sister Chesnut before our big transfer day. She was right! Really it was a very special day. We went to help with lunch at the mission office. Sister Beutler always serves amazing meals. She insists we have a huge bowl of fruit at every meal. It is fun to watch it disappear. The new missionaries arrive at different times throughout the morning. We had three Sisters that went to the Mexico MTC so they arrived later than the rest. The first thing we do is feed them. Altogether we have 17 new missionaries. Then the Assistants, the Office staff and President Chesnut start their training, have interviews, they write a letter home, they have pictures…. It is a busy day for these new missionaries. The Sisters coming from Mexico had already talked with a woman on the plane, gave out a Book of Mormon and had this family meet President and Sister Chesnut in the airport. These young missionaries are remarkable. While the Office is busy with the new missionaries we were trying to figure things out with the departing missionaries. They are given a lot of instructions beforehand but there are lots of things they are trying to remember and take care of. One of the Sisters had come from Elko (4 ½ hours away). She remembered (after she got here) that she had left her I.D. under the seat of the car in Elko. There was a lot of wondering how to take care of the situation and they decided that Sister Baclayon would drive to Winnemucca and another member would get the license and drive to Winnemucca, that way they each drove 4 ½ hours, but that’s better than 9 hours. That was the big drama of the day. I guess it could have been worse with 21 missionaries going home. Elder Hardman packed and repacked the trailer three times. The departing missionaries took a group picture and then they were shuttled to the Temple for a session. While all of this is going on we also have transfers happening and the Missionaries coming and going love to see each other and want to visit and want to say good-bye and want to hug, and wonder what they forgot in their apartment and are nervous about the transfer. This is where the herding cats come in. I walked back and forth with one fretful Sister three times. We finally had the Sisters that were picking her up come and grab her and put her in the car so they could leave. After this we went to help at the Mission Home. Sister Beutler planned a fancy barbeque, with marinated chicken and brats, funeral potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, corn and spinach salad. There were three kinds of dessert. Elder Hardman did the grilling. I have gotten to be a great fruit chopper. Sister Chesnut showed us the pile of mattresses that would be laid out for them to sleep on that night. We had been asked to sing with the senior couples and we were nervous about taking part in this but there are good singers in our group so Elder Hardman and I sang quietly with the group. They held the testimony meeting out by the fire pit, it was a lovely evening. I’m pretty sure that heaven feels the same as hearing 20 departing missionaries bare their testimonies. It is a sweet experience. We didn’t get home until late that night but we knew the missionaries would be up at 3am to go to the airport and so we didn’t feel too bad for ourselves.

The rest of the week was hot! (temperature-wise) We have all of the names in our notebooks so we are getting excited to close a book out. We thought it would be easy but I guess we didn’t knock on wood or something because we have had little success. One night we realized we only had one “Welcome to the Ward” bag left so we said we would have to go home when we gave that out. We met a lot of grumpy people that night who wouldn’t even accept our bag. One guy told us that he had been married to his wife for 20 something years and it was the first time he’d heard anything about her being a member of the “Mormon” church. The wife came outside and told us she had been forced to get baptized at 14 by someone who never should have been able to hold the priesthood. She obviously had never told her husband any of this. She told us she was her own higher power now, thanked us and sent us on our way. One man told us with gritted teeth that he had told “we people” that he isn’t interested. Maybe the heat is making them all angry. We decided that the downtown area would be the easiest to close out but even that didn’t happen. We have been several times to what we refer to as the “bee house” because when you knock on the door wasps come out of the siding but we can’t find any “body” home. Elder Hardman doesn’t like that house! Brother Johnson did tell us today that our numbers are down to 568. President Chesnut asked us if we are ready for another ward yet. I guess we are getting to that point. I hope the next ward doesn’t have 918 people on their roll.

Since we have had more go home than have come out we have had to combine some areas of the mission. Our Elder in the Keystone Ward has been combined with the Summit Ridge Elders. One of the Elders in that ward will go home before the next transfer to start college so they are in a threesome trying to cover two wards. They have been calling us to do splits. I don’t think they love having to call us. I’m pretty sure the one that goes with us drew the short stick but it is fun for us. We were asked by one lady if we were married and if the Elder was our son. We did get to help with a lesson tonight.

The best part of the week has been the return of the MoDs. We almost cried when they started again. We went around with a treat on Thursday to meet the new missionaries in our zone and the MoDs started again that night. Our zone is back on track. These young missionaries are resilient. We will miss the missionaries that have been transferred.

We were called by some Spanish-speaking Sisters in another Zone that wanted to hear about service opportunities in their area. Elder Hardman told them we would take them to lunch. We met with Sister Martinez and Sister Nelsen (one of the new Sisters from the Mexico MTC) and they were so excited to hear about chances to give service. We later found out that Sister Martinez has only been in the mission field a week longer than we have been. She is already a trainer! We continue to be in awe of these amazing missionaries!

We also love and think of our family at home. We know your lives are busy and we pray for you.

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Transfer Day pictures:
21 departing missionaries.
What transfer day looks like.
Sister Beutler’s amazing lunch.

Letter #15

The Parable of the Farmer and the Mule:

There once was a farmer who had an old mule. One day the mule fell into the farmer’s well. The farmer decided neither the mule or the well was worth saving so he called his neighbors to come and help throw dirt into the well to bury the mule below. As the mule was being buried by clogs of dirt that rained down upon him he decided that with each shovel-full he would shake it off and step up. It was a painful as the dirt and the clods fell upon him and he thought of giving up and giving in, but each time he shook it off and stepped up. Shake it off and step up, shake it off and step up. Eventually the mule stepped over the wall of the well. The dirt that was meant to bury him, blessed him.

This parable was given in a talk today in sacrament meeting. It was meant as an introduction to the subject of pioneers and how they dealt with adversity but it felt appropriate for missionary work (and everyday life). Sometimes it feels like someone is up there shoveling dirt on us. How we deal with adversity determines whether or not it will bury us or bless us.

We were hit in the head with a few dirt clods this week but we also felt the light from above falling into the well. It’s funny but a little bit of hope takes away the memory of the hard things.

We were asked to pick up a missionary at the Mission Office. He was playing basketball on P-day a week ago and turned and ran into the pole really hard. He received a concussion and has been put on bedrest but his symptoms were not getting any better. They decided he needed to go home. This is another Elder in our zone. He only had a few months left on his mission. He had been left in the Mission Office all day but they close at 5pm. We were asked to take him home, feed him and keep him until his companions could pick him up. They took him to their apartment where he packed and left the next morning for home. While we were picking him up, President Chesnut told us another Elder in our zone would be going home on Monday. He has been having headaches every day and after going to many doctors, Missionary Medical decided he needed to go home too. Our poor zone has had 4 missionaries go home early since the last transfer. This week is Transfers. Our zone needs to have some positive things happen. We have felt the loss of our wonderful zone leader, no more “Miracle of the Day” reports. This makes us sad. The week before transfers is always a little melancholy but this past week
was especially so. We are hoping this next transfer will put new life into the zone.

Speaking of Transfer Day, this one is the BIGGY! We are having 27 missionaries leave (including the three recent ones from our zone) and 18 are coming on Tuesday. We had a Pow Wow with the President and the senior couples to talk about how we were going to handle this. We do the lunch for the incoming missionaries and then we will have to pack the outgoing missionaries and take them to the Temple for a session, then they go to the Mission Home for a nice dinner and testimony meeting. They are not even allowed to unpack their luggage after they bring it to the Mission Office. They have to bring an overnight bag to the Mission home. It promises to be a crazy day! In between all of this it is a regular transfer day with pretty much everyone coming to the Mission Office to drop off and transfer to new companionships or to pick up and train a new missionary. I can’t wait to see what it all will look like.

Our bright spot of hope this week came on Saturday as we were knocking doors. We met a fun lady, who is originally from Delta, in her front yard. She happily welcomed us and we had a nice visit. She told us she quit smoking a couple of years ago and has been thinking that it is time to go back to church. This is a lady who lives in a nice home with a well-kept yard, a job, a husband (Catholic) and everything! It’s too good to be true! She didn’t come to church today but we aren’t giving up. She told us she would like us to come for that “once a month thing”. See, it doesn’t take much anymore to get us excited!

Elder Hardman, Elder Hammond and President Chesnut even went and played 9 holes of golf on Saturday morning. I think President Chesnut was happy for an outlet. Elder Hardman said that he did okay. He was enjoying playing so much before we left that I hope he is able to go some more. It has to be worth bringing his clubs with us!

We took another fun drive on Saturday to Mormon Station. It was the first city, historically, in Nevada. Brigham Young sent some pioneers to have an outpost at Mormon Station. The first white baby in the State was born there. The history goes on to tell how the Nevadans hated the Mormons and kind of forced them out. Hum, seems familiar. Anyway, it is a cute little town (Genoa) and a pretty state park. It isn’t too far from Carson City.

We are so proud of Hunter for graduating this past week. It was hard not to be there. It is an end of an era for us. We paid our first college tuition to Ricks College and our last to BYU-Idaho, same place, new name. We feel so grateful that we have been able to provide this opportunity for our children. It makes us feel so blessed.

We now have the last of the names in our notebooks! We will still need to visit each of those names and we always have the new move-in lists but we are seeing the top of the well! We had a return missionary speak last week and he told how speaking to strangers and in church never got easier for him. I understand, I don’t think I will ever “enjoy” knocking on doors but I know what we are doing is needed and it isn’t something they have been able to do for themselves. I get worried about what assignment will come next. I will try to “Shake it off and step up”!

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

p.s. Favorite quote of the week,
“I never lose. I either win, or I learn.”

Pictures: Mormon Station collage and the first page of our Transfer Day activities, it will be a busy day!

Letter #14

If you love the thrill of roller-coaster rides, serve a mission! I have never felt so many ups and downs in my life! We have had a better week this week but it still leaves you with more emotions than you know what to do with.

We have an FHE once a month at the mission home with the President and his wife and the other senior couples. This past Monday was that night. It is nice to meet together. We tried having the meal outside but in true Reno weather style our food was blowing around the table and landing in other people’s laps so we took the party indoors. President Chesnut shares the many miracles that are happening in the mission and your heart feels full with his report. He told how an Elder was recently transferred to a companion that has diabetes. This Elder started having weird symptoms and his companions recognized them as diabetes and took him to an emergency room. The doctors told them that one more day and he would have been in a coma. He shared many more miracles going on in the mission. Considering the fact that he had just had two missionaries that had to return immediately, it was sweet to hear of the tender mercies that are happening every day in the mission. (UP)

We have had a lot of illness going on in our zone. Our zone leaders have even asked us to pray for the missionaries in the zone. We watch these young missionaries struggle against so many “pitfalls”. We are coming to realize how much a “certain” letter from home will affect them. They all try so hard to be the best missionary they can be but it seems like sometimes the cards are stacked against them. Our amazing Zone Leader has been fighting a mystery illness for quite some time and they made the decision to send him home (it is a few months early) He was crushed. He personally called Elder Hardman to tell us good-bye. We love this Elder. We would laugh because everything he said was, “Awesome” “Super Cool” or “Amazing”. He is the reason we would receive our nightly Miracle of the Day (MoD) reports that we love. He has been so kind to us and we have enjoyed watching him be a spiritual giant but his illness had robbed him of the light in his eyes. It was hard to tell him good-bye but we know he served a valiant, honorable mission and we pray that they will quickly find out what is wrong with him now that he is home. (DOWN)

We participated in an episode of “Hoarders” or “Clean House” this week. (without the camera or cleaning crew, of course) We had a family in the ward that was moving and asked for help. The Sister has been so sweet to me so I knew we needed to go help. The ward was asked to come at 8am on Thursday to help them load the truck. We arrived at 9am, no ward members, no truck. We asked what we could do (we could see that nothing had been packed or taken down). They said in unison, “Clean the bathroom” and they left to go pick up the truck. I plowed my way toward the bathroom and almost couldn’t make myself go in. They had showered and the floor, and everything on the floor, was wet. The toilet hadn’t been flushed in some time. There was “stuff” everywhere. I put on my rubber gloves and dug in. I finally got a broom and dust pan and started shoveling the yuck into the trash, ugh! I packed some stuff into a box but couldn’t bring myself to put the wet towels in there too. I tried to wipe the floors but it had so much shampoo (or whatever) on it that it was a soapy mess. Elder Hardman was trying to tackle the alcove where their little boy slept. You would move things and the bugs would just scurry away! We worked for 2 ½ hours and they finally came back with the truck and we tried to help them put some things in the truck but we didn’t make much of a dent. Then they told us they had a storage unit, the basement and the garage that they needed to move too. (Remember, nothing had been packed!) We know that they moved though so they must have worked it all out. We now know why we had to get so many shots! (Loopdey Loops)

We were able to help with a Mobile Pantry this week. It was a last minute assignment and they needed two more people. This was held in Sun Valley. We think of Sun Valley as a wealthy place but here it is probably the poorest place in the Reno/Sparks area. We had Spanish-speaking Elders come. They are so cute to watch them interact with these good people. The Food Bank adores these young missionaries. The director was so sweet when we met with her. She was telling us about a certain Elder that she loves working with. She said, “I just want to hug him! But I know I can’t do that!” : ) We are enjoying working with our two ladies with ESL. These are such hard-working people. They get up at 4:30 am and work hard all day. Elder Hardman likes to talk with the husband each time. After a long day on Friday husband left to go and do yard work at 5pm. It is such a contrast to the entitlement we see in the downtown motel area. These two women are very different but are working so hard to learn English. They express their appreciation each time and they always work on their homework. The one lady insists the “old guy” at her job practices with her. She was funny telling us the story in her broken English, how she told him he had to help her. We are having fun doing this. (Curves and Twists)

Finally, we received the report today that we are at 609 names. Brother Johnson is determined to get below the 600 mark. Over 300 names have been moved out, not bad. Our notebook are still full though. There are still weird things that happen. We receive a “New Move-In” list also that we go to welcome to the ward. We had one this week where the man at the door told us he wasn’t interested and we told him that we just wanted to know if DeAnn Thomas lived there. He got more upset and told us that was his Mom and she had died three years ago, on that same day. You feel pretty dumb when something like that happens. (Death Drop)

We took a fun drive yesterday evening. Quincy, California is part of the mission so we decided to see what is there. It was a beautiful drive. You quickly climb into pine trees and cooler weather with picturesque valleys and ranches. The Church’s girl’s camp site is by Quincy and we know why now, it is beautiful and worth the drive. There are so many diverse places in this mission. We don’t know how the Mission President keeps track of it all! The Quincy zone reports the highest amount of service hours every month. I guess they don’t get many opportunities to teach and so they do a lot of service. It isn’t a big city but they have a Stake center in Quincy. We figure we will never be transferred so it is up to us to see the different parts of the mission. We liked Quincy! (Coming out of a spin)

Anyway, we are still sitting in our seats with the belt securely fastened and the bar pulled down and are determined to enjoy the ride!

The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

p.s. Bumper Sticker:
The             were right!

Letter #13

There are a lot of firsts in missionary life. Some are fun, some change your life and others just make you sad. We had that this week. We were called on Wednesday by President Chesnut. He asked Elder Hardman if he was a Minute Man Missionary. We were told to come to the Mission Office in a half-hour to drive a missionary to Elko who would be picked up by their family there. This missionary had to leave the mission field immediately. We drove the missionary to their apartment, helped them pack and drove a long, quiet 4 ½ hour ride to Elko. We met with the parent, put the missionary in their car and turned around and drove back to Reno. This has been a hard week. Hopefully next week will be better.

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Letter #12

July 4th! Our three month mark and we hear that they will be having fireworks displays all over the valley for us tonight! It is so thoughtful of Reno to plan these things for us.

It was a busy week. We went to a lesson with the Sisters, we had District Meeting, we were the responsible adults for P-day so they could go to the Institute, we did the luncheon for the Beutlers for MLC on Friday and we started teaching in ESL. (isn’t in order but I think I covered everything!)

P-day at the Institute was fun. They have pool, ping pong, bean bags toss, air-hockey and games at the Institute. No wonder kids like to hang-out there. The missionaries pretty much were alone there for the afternoon. We are learning who is good at what. You see a different side when they get together on P- day.

Tuesday they combined interviews with the Mission President with regular District Meeting. They had been asked to prepare a 2 minute talk on repentance to give the President during their interview. They were called out during their meeting so they were all distracted during this time. We keep thinking that we have things figured out but then they do something we haven’t experienced before and we catch a new glimpse of missionary life. We didn’t have an interview, which meant I didn’t have to prepare a talk! Yay!

We were asked to go to a fun lesson this week. The Sierra Highland Sisters were pulling weeds for someone and the neighbor next door came over and told them he was a member. He went in his house and brought out his priesthood ordination paper and a 1920 copy of the Book of Mormon. He hadn’t been to church in 60 years. They asked if he would like them to come and teach him and he said, “Yes”. It was fun to be part of that lesson. He joined the church as a boy living in Idaho and a neighbor lady would pick him up and take him to church. Doing service pays off in so many ways.

Speaking of service, we met with the new director of the Mobile Harvest program (food pantries). She is a cute lady. We met her on our first service opportunity with the food pantry. She was in charge of the site we were working and she had brought her grandmothers to help. She is now in charge of all volunteers. She has 2800 volunteers to coordinate every month! She so appreciates and loves working with the young missionaries. She is thoughtful of their time and their constraints. She asked if it made them uncomfortable to give out coffee. She will be great to work with. We also were given our ESL clients. We are working with two women, one is from Mexico and one is from Peru. They both have a desire to learn English and were fun to work with. I need to thank Sister Fuhriman for her Spanish class she taught in the ward a few years ago and Mr. Valajos (my high school Spanish teacher). I was able to understand pretty much everything they said. We had a good time together. I have to keep them on task though because they start to argue about how things are pronounced, in Spanish and English! We will meet with them twice a week for an hour.

We knocked many doors this week and did lots of paperwork so that we would be able to play with the kids this weekend. Lori and the children drove to Tahoe on Friday. We were able to spend the day with them on Saturday. We hiked down to Emerald Bay, toured the “castle” that is down there, watched the kids play in the water and hiked out. Lake Tahoe is very crowded over the 4 th of July! We went just 2 weeks ago and it was so cold that there was hardly anyone there. They came and toured the apartment and had dinner with us on Sunday. We also fed the Elders because their dinner appointment had fallen through. After dinner we took them to see the Reno Temple and then they drove back to Tahoe. We will spend most of the 4 th with them. It is wonderful to have them here but it also is hard. I may hide in their car on the way home. I had a lady ask me today at church what I missed most. She told me her daughter missed getting a drink out of the tap, she had to drink bottled water. It’s no contest, I miss family the most!

We hope you all have a great 4th of July and enjoy celebrating our three month mark! Those fireworks are for us!

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Letter #11

Another week has gone by! I now have to get my journal and read back to remember things that happened this week. The new assignment we were trained for this week is that we are going to be teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) We went to Carson City on Tuesday to receive training with the young missionaries. They have had the program with the missionaries before but it was over a year ago. Our first assignment has been to track down the books and materials for the program. We have found 9 sets of books, out of 21. Hmmm. It seems to be our calling to go looking for lost things! Anyway, the director is an 85 year old woman that says everyone has the right to be literate. She has amazing energy. She loves the Sister Missionaries and tries to coax them to come and pray with her and visit with her at her office. She explained that we are not to talk about religion or read to the students from our Bible (Book of Mormon) but being the students’ friend is okay. She is working on getting permission at a school for Elder Hardman and I to teach a larger group of people, scary. We haven’t heard back yet on the details. The program is free for anyone with any language but I guess they will mostly speak Spanish. This should be interesting. I guess we may learn a little Spanish along the way. Our experience this week in Spanish is that we know the difference between Coyote (the animal we saw on our morning walk) and Chayote (the Mexican squash we tried). Just kidding, we already know the difference between an animal and a vegetable!

It has been hot this week and so we are knocking doors in the morning and in the evening and doing our paperwork during the middle of the day. Saturday we did knock doors during the really hot part of the day but the thermostat in the car kept saying it was 71 degrees. It sure didn’t feel like 71 degrees so we checked our phone, upper 80’s to 91! Yep that is what it felt like. We drink a lot of water. We also found these “Mighty Mugs” at Walmart that are stainless steel. They keep our water cold all day. It is a great find! Now I need to find a way to keep my skirts down. Someone should tell Sister Missionaries that the wind blows like crazy in Nevada and that an A-line skirt might be a problem. I have to pay constant attention and hold my skirt down.

We have done a lot of door knocking this week but being summertime we rarely find anyone home the first time around. We see the same doors over and over. It is starting to feel like we have knocked every door in Reno. If you wonder why I look for bumper stickers, it is because I spend most of the day in the passenger side seat. I need something to do while looking for addresses. Sadly, I think I am running out of fun bumper stickers.

We went to a wonderful fireside tonight. They have a fireside called, “Why I believe”. They ask recent converts to bare their testimonies and tell their story. We came away uplifted by the things that were shared. These recent converts are amazingly brave. They have all been told that they will be asked to speak in Church now so “they have to get used to it”. I have been a member a long time and I am not used to it! They also had one of our missionaries tell his story. Funny, you don’t think of these missionaries as converts. This Elder joined the church just a few years before his mission. It was a great meeting. They invite investigators to come with their missionaries. It was fun to see the lady that we went to teach with the Elders. She is getting ready to be baptized this week. The Spirit was so strong in the room. One man told how he got on Mormon.org to look for answers and formed a relationship with the Senior Couple that answered his questions. It is interesting to see how the internet has had such an influence in missionary work. Even Missionaries need a reminder of why this work is important and we felt that tonight.

We also get to do funny things. We were asked to go and sit with the Sister Missionaries in their apartment while the plumber came. They aren’t allowed to be in the apartment alone with him. So here we are sitting in an apartment that has very little furniture with two girls (all of us in Sunday clothes) but when the plumber started to tell Elder Hardman what the problem was, one of the girls pops up to sign the papers and talk about the plumbing. I’ll bet he went home with a good story that night!

One of the people we were trying to get a hold of was finally in his front yard cleaning out his motor home. We asked where they had been and they told us Pyramid Lake and that we should go see it. So we did. We took a drive Saturday evening to see Pyramid Lake. It is much bigger than I imagined and the water is a beautiful turquoise color. There are no trees around but it looks like nice sandy beaches. We didn’t see where camping is though so I guess we will have to check out the other side of the lake another time. It is nice to go on little trips and see the area. The missionaries all wistfully talk about wanting to see Lake Tahoe, they aren’t allowed to, so we have to be careful and not tell them that we have gone. (several times) That is our little secret.

Well, the gospel’s true and we love you! Keep those pictures posting, we love to see everyone!

Love you lots and lots!
Elder and Sister Hardman

The sign for the week was on a different church but still applies;
Come as you are, Change inside

Letter #10

I forgot to tell the story of Elder Hardman and his dirty white shirt last week. It was a milestone moment and I didn’t document it! We had been asked to visit a less active (what we are supposed to call people that never come to church) sister by her sister (who is also less active but has a good home teacher). The sister thought her sister would like to know when the meetings are. So off we go with our little “Welcome to the Ward” sack with the meeting times information (and cinnamon rolls, we get excited when we think people will actually want to see us!). The sister (Heidi) invited us in and was very friendly and right then her sister (the one that thought her sister would like some info, Melody) also came to the house. She had been called by Heidi to help her pick up her swamp cooler. We had both sisters in the same house! Well we are supposed to ask if there is anything we can do, right?! So Elder Hardman was out with the swamp cooler, wiggling and lifting the monstrosity into place with a tarp underneath. Needless to say, the mark of a real missionary is a dirty white shirt! He earned it. The sisters told us how their Dad has been a Stake President, a Mission President, etc.… Heidi has two cute teenage children in her home. Elder Hardman asked if there was anything else they needed and she said she needed a dead tree cut down. He would like to have the 14 year old boy help him cut the tree down. We just need to find a chain saw, and go in work clothes.

This week we have stayed clean but it was Transfer Day again and so we spent Tuesday helping with the meals. We had 10 new missionaries come and 7 leave. It is a busy day on Transfer Day! We help prepare and clean up for lunch, go home for about an hour and then do it again for dinner. Sister Beutler goes all out for dinner. I guess it’s their “Last Supper” and she wants to make it special for them. The best part is hearing these seasoned missionaries bare their testimonies. It is a small glimpse of what it might feel like as we give an accounting of our lives. There is a feeling there that I have never experienced before, even at homecomings. There is something about sharing their feelings with other missionaries that have been out the same amount of time, have served together, that love each other. It is a special opportunity to hear them speak. Part of the lessons they give to investigators includes testifying that what the companion has just said is true. One Elder stood up after his companion bore his testimony and said he didn’t want to miss the opportunity (one last time) to say, “I bare testimony that what my companion has said is true!” We also have Temple Square Sisters that are here for “part” of their mission. We have worked with both of the Sisters leaving to return to Temple Square. They are remarkable Sister missionaries. We love them. One of the Elders that went home was the Elder that invited us to breakfast the day after we arrived. It’s amazing how quickly we have become attached to these young missionaries.

We had a fun experience this week watching a cattle drive for the Reno Rodeo. We had heard that they drive the cattle all the way from California and down through the main streets of town! We couldn’t imagine how this was done. People line the streets and you aren’t sure when they are coming because you just can’t expect cows to tell time. Soon we could see them up on the hillside moving toward us. The roads are closed just before they come down. The way they control the cattle is that they are hemmed in by many cowboys (and cowgirls) on horses. I guess they sign up a year early to ride in with the cows and to be on the trail with them. It was a different experience but as we tried going to knock doors later we realized that the rodeo closes streets and detoured us all over. It’s a nuisance when the rodeo comes to town.

Saturday was a wonderful day. The Senior Missionaries have been planning for a while to take a cruise around Lake Tahoe. It had been a much cooler week last week and Saturday was no exception. We dressed well though and so even though it was cold and windy we had a great time. It is a 2 hour cruise around the lake and they do a tour about Lake Tahoe’s history. It is a triple-decked boat and surprisingly the upper open deck was the warmest place to be. It was a great view from the top deck. We enjoyed being with the other senior couples. We really don’t see each other very often. We went to lunch afterward at a Chinese buffet. They had several shrimp dishes so even Elder Hardman was happy.

The rest of the week was knocking lots of doors, no sooner than we clear a notebook out of names Elder Hardman fills them up again. He has a system and we are working our way through piece by piece. Good thing he is so diligent about this. We are working our way through the J’s now. I think M sounds half-way but Elder Hardman says there were a lot of H’s so he thinks we are getting close to half-way. We shall see. I didn’t get an exact count today but during the week we were at 684!

Happy Father’s Day to all of the perfect Fathers in our family. We are so grateful for our Fathers and all that they have taught us. I am grateful for Elder Hardman. I know he could do a mission without me (all ready did!) but I couldn’t do this without him. He doesn’t get discouraged or mad or any of the various emotions I go through on a daily basis. He is organized and devoted to doing his best. I am grateful that he is. We are also so grateful for the Fathers of our grandchildren. We know what it takes to be a Father in today’s world. We so appreciate our sons and son-in- laws that are in the middle of raising young families, having careers, and balancing church responsibilities. We know so much is expected of you and we love you! We hope you all had a great day! Well, the gospel’s true and we love you!!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

The Bumper Sticker for the week: Keep Tahoe Blue

I looked, and except for Emerald Bay (which has a green tint), Tahoe looks very blue!! Supposedly their sticker can be found worldwide. If you spot one you can take a picture and post it on their site. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see one in your neighborhood!