Letter #33

So much happened this past week! I’m probably going to forget something. Most of it centered around Thanksgiving but it was also the last district meeting for 3 of our missionaries and the first district meeting for a new senior couple. They are the Vaaivakas from Riverton. They recently served a mission in Papua, New Guinea. They arrived home in February and are already serving their second mission. They are Tongan, called to serve in the Tongan ward. They are a dynamic couple and have family in the Reno area. (Tongans have family wherever they go!) They hit the ground running! They came last Monday and already had appointments on Tuesday. They will be a great addition. They are planning on teaching Institute and Seminary with the Tongans. Brother Vaaivaka looks like he could still play a mean game of rugby! We also have a new office couple, who came to Sister Beutler’s dinner. The Vaaivakas were invited to eat with their ward. Makes you want to be Tongan!!

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)

Letter #32

A week of change! We don’t even need a transfer this time to feel a change. We attended two different wards today. We went to Keystone at 8:30am and Sienna Vista at 2:30pm. Both wards felt like completely different wards. Our marvelous membership clerk was called as a counselor in the Bishopric. Oh dear! The Bishop in the Sienna Vista ward has been the Bishop in another ward. They are not only adjusting to a new ward they are adjusting to a new building. We only had Sacrament meeting and they only called Bishoprics so next week will be exciting!

We have been asked to focus on Sienna Vista and Keystone and add Summit Ridge when we are ready. There is another ward in the valley that isn’t following the 8 step process to move people out of the ward and they are sending them all to Keystone. We discovered a man that had lived in Keystone but when we tracked everything down we found out he does live in that other ward! Elder Hardman is ready to contact the Bishop of that ward! Keeping the records cleaned up gives us job security.

We attended the “Why I believe” fireside tonight. They hold these about every six months. They have new members bear their testimonies and it is powerful. We have been touched by a story that began with the last fireside we attended. The husband told his story of conversion but his wife didn’t want anything to do with the lessons or the church, she did help her husband with his calling when he became sick. He was the PFR and wasn’t well enough to go clean the church so she took over for him. A few months after that we heard that she was going to be baptized. She spoke tonight and asked some of her non-member friends to come listen to her story. This has been a great story to watch unfold. She told how this has strengthened their marriage and how she had always wanted to pray with her husband, now they pray together every day. A young single adult that was baptized last week told how she would walk by the Institute every day at the college and it said, “Visitors Welcome” but she wasn’t sure if they meant it. She looked up the classes online and signed up for a class and then called one of the Institute teachers to see if she had to pay or anything. He told her she was welcome! On her first teaching appointment the Elders asked her if she would commit to being baptized on November 12^th. She had spent the whole day thinking about that date, November 12^th had just kept popping into her head and she couldn’t figure out why. When the Elders said that date she knew that she would be baptized on November 12^th, and she was! It is sweet to hear these testimonies. Last Sunday when they announced the ward divisions we talked to people that were devastated! As we have seen these same people this week the change in understanding has been remarkable. One brother that told us he was going to move was called to be in a Bishopric. He isn’t planning on moving any more. It has been a great week.

We are going to prepare and take around a few dinners before Thanksgiving this week and then on Thursday we are going to help Sister Beutler feed 30 people. We had wondered if we should hold a dinner for the people we know but we know they can’t get upstairs to our apartment so we decided we would take food around to the ones we know won’t have Thanksgiving and then help Sister Beutler with the ones on her list. We may be tired of turkey after this week!

We will certainly miss being home for Thanksgiving, you are always in our hearts and in our prayers! The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Letter #31

There were a lot of interesting answers for the contest but only one person was right! Katie correctly answered that Friday, November 4 th was our 7-11 day. We have been out 7 months and have 11 to go. The fact that it said, “Oh Thank Heaven” at the bottom was strictly coincidental! We sent Katie a gift certificate for 7-11 where she can get a Slurpee and tired hot dogs (Clay’s answer) delivered to her by a drone (Hunter’s answer). Garrett wanted to know if others in the mission have a 7-11 day. We don’t know, everyone pretends they aren’t counting. We had a 7-11 day, that’s what matters!

The big ward divisions happened today. They made 5 wards into 7 wards. There were a lot of changes. We are now in a different ward with a different Bishop. If that is where we will really be assigned we don’t know. I’m sure we won’t be at the top of the list of “Things To Do”. The Bishops have all been called but they have a lot to do to have their wards function. There will be four wards meeting in one building. Our meetings don’t start until 2:30pm. This will go through next year too. We meet as a new ward next week but only have Sacrament meeting. Our new ward is called Sienna Vista.

We had wonderful training this week. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday and Zone Training on Wednesday. Both days were great! Zone Conference focused on the Sacrament. They ask each missionary to come prepared with a five minute talk. They don’t know who will be called on to give their talk. They were all on the Sacrament but were all completely different. Missionaries are amazing. I find myself writing down quotes the missionaries say. They have great insight and wisdom. Parents would be touched to realize how many times the missionaries tell about something they learned at home. It was fun to hear the training on driving in the snow for those missionaries that have never had that experience, yet! Wednesday the Zone Leaders let all of the missionaries have a part in the training. We have 3 missionaries that are new but they did great training. My favorite part was from one of the new missionaries. He and his companion were double transferred into their area. They spent a few weeks realizing that they had no one to teach and most of those being taught needed to be dropped. He talked about how hard they had been working and now their area has exploded. These two are so fun to watch and be around. Elder Green is the trainer, he is a short, stocky gymnast. Elder Johnson is tall and lanky. They love each other and love everyone they come in contact with. They make visits to active member’s homes and bring an object lesson and talk to them about how they can help the missionaries.We even heard a sister bear her testimony about their visit. They tracted out three investigators. This is the part I loved best. The one investigator was saying that he had asked questions in his visits to other churches and no one was able to give him answers. He asked the Elders a question and Elder Johnson told him that the answer was in the Book of Mormon, opened it to a scripture and read it to him. The man hugged the Book of Mormon because it contains scriptures that confirm what he already believes. Then Elder Johnson gleefully said, “I just love this!” It is fun to be a part of this great work.

We were poked several times this week. We had to go to the doctor to establish care so that prescriptions could continue. We also needed flu shots, poke number one. Then we had to go to a lab and have blood work done, poke number two. I hate being poked!

The weather has been beautiful. We have worked hard to finish up our lists while there are warm days. I don’t know what will happen with the Keystone records. We had five new records come in this morning.

The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Letter #30

The day the Stake has been waiting for is coming next weekend. We were told when we arrived that we were cleaning up records so they could “right-size” the wards. Next Sunday night we are having a meeting to tell about the ward changes in the Stake. We were told today that we are the ones responsible for this. Yikes! We went to 2 Sacrament meetings today where there were lots of tears shed over the change happening. I don’t want to feel responsible! One lady asked me how long we had been here, when I told her she said it seemed like so much longer than that! Ha ha! I hope we will be allowed to go to church after next week.

The rest of the week was about the same. We fed 40 + people on Friday, we went to a meeting with another ward (and received assignments), we went to a baptism, we went to a lesson, we knocked on doors, I fixed a backpack. It all keeps us busy but it feels like déjà vu.

We have made a friend in the apartment complex. There is a man that walked his dog at the same time we go walking and then he started walking alone. We asked him about his dog and he told us how she had died. We now talk to him most mornings and one morning he asked why we are in Reno. Elder Hardman told him we are serving a mission for our church. The next day we were in the little gym working out (because it was raining) and he came inside to ask us which church we were serving a mission for. We plan to invite him and his wife to dinner.

The lesson we went to was for two fun ladies that have been less-active but are making an effort to return to activity. They already have a beautiful Christmas village set up in their home and they invited us back to their December Open House. I guess they have an amazing Christmas display, outside, inside and in their backyard! It will be fun to go back and visit them.

Sister Beutler is checking out! She is busy making sure we know that we are taking over! We have 3 senior couples that are leaving from the end of November until the first week of January. If you think missionaries get trunky! Senior couples are worse! Sister Beutler is still going to be in charge of the Christmas Party though and that sounds like a BIG deal so I am grateful for that! We have zone conference this week and zone training. The general authorities have asked mission presidents to have interviews with the missionaries twice quarterly instead of once a quarter. This is a lot more work for mission presidents. I just asked if it meant I would have to make another meal. Only thinking of myself!

Well the Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Ps. We are having a contest this week. The first person to respond with the correct answer will win a fabulous prize! (I will decide what the prize is later!) What is the significance of this picture? You can text, email or respond on the blog. The more specific your answer the better chance you have of winning!

Letter #29

Happy Nevada Day (October 31 st ) to one and all! Nevada is 152 years old this year. They celebrate on the last Friday of October so that they can enjoy a 3-day weekend and not interrupt Halloween activities. I guess they boast that they have the biggest statehood celebration in the whole United States. We didn’t see evidence of this. Nothing much was going on in Reno. I guess Carson City has a big parade. They also have a State Treasure Hunt, where clues are posted on the newspaper’s website. Each clue relates to Nevada State history in some way, and the one that finds the hidden medallion wins a prize. For our Nevada Day celebration we knocked doors. Oh wait, we do that every day!

We have expanded our door knocking to the Cold Springs ward. We had a fun experience in that area this week. We like to play, “Hard to Get” as missionaries. We are working on the list that the ward mission leader gave us and we have been working hard to get through our list because they had a Ward dinner on Saturday that we wanted to take the flyer around as we knocked doors. On Wednesday evening we started knocking doors and no one was home. Finally we knocked one door and the man told us that the woman we were looking for no longer lives there. We thanked him and went back to our car and started to plug in the next address in the GPS. The man walked out to the car and hesitantly asked us, “If I wanted to convert to your church where would I go to the church?” We gave him a sack, which has the ward’s address, bishop and missionary’s phone numbers and then we invited him to the Chili Dinner at the church. We asked him if he’d like us to call the young missionaries to talk to him and he said that he would be gone for a month but would like to talk to them when he gets back. He lived in Denver and would drive through Utah for work. He told us he is a secret BYU fan. He is a very nice young man. We hope we hear more from him. It was funny to have him chase us down. That doesn’t happen every day! It felt like a tender mercy because he was the only one home that night to even talk with.

The Keystone Ward also had a ward dinner on Saturday. Our blind friend that we take to church heard the announcement of the dinner and couldn’t think about anything else! We picked her up for the dinner. I was so happy that we took pictures of the feud signs last time because they have been taken down. She was so excited to go eat! Every ward seems to hold a Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat here. Even the State holds a Chili Cook-off for Nevada Days. We sat next to Marta (a ward missionary) and her friend and granddaughter. I don’t think she will ever sit by our blind lady again. This lady doesn’t get out much and she never quits talking the whole time we have her! She tells the same stories over and over. It was funny because Marta is 80 years old but she is spunky! She asked me out loud if Kathy (the blind lady) could feed herself! Ha, ha, she is blind, not deaf! She is not a big lady but she can eat! (and she can feed herself!) She had three big bowls of chili, three helpings of salad and four big pieces of cornbread! I was impressed! She then insisted I figure out a way to take food home for her son. She is now insisting that the ward holds a Thanksgiving dinner and we are to take her to that. I haven’t heard of one but we will see.

We had a Temple Day with the zone this week. Those are always fun. It was a beautiful day that day. We are now having lots of rain. Friday morning we thought we had woken up in San Francisco, it was a foggy, moist walk that morning. I thought this was a desert! Water doesn’t soak into the ground here, it just stays on top until it evaporates I guess. There are now mud puddles everywhere.

We are going to FHE at the mission home Sunday night. We usually have these once a month for the Senior Couples on a Monday night but we have a new senior couple in the mission. They are going to live in Chester, California. We took a drive there a few weeks ago to check it out. They are 2 hours away from Reno. It is a beautiful little community. They are the mission president’s daughter’s in-laws. The man grew up in Quincy, CA. They will feel isolated from Reno and will probably be snowed in all winter! They are in a home that is heated by a wood-burning stove. I think it would be great to be there in the summer but they will spend two winters here! I think I prefer the downtown motels!

We hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween! We have to be “in” by 6:30pm on Halloween. We have discovered the scariest costume ever though! Go as a missionary! People won’t make eye contact and cross the street when they see you coming! We are terrifying! Only the very brave will chase you out to your car!

We love you all! The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Letter #28

Missionary Miracle:

We have an amazing missionary in our zone, I will call him Elder D. He came out on a mission and realized that he could not serve because he needed to take care of some things. He went home and repented, worked hard and returned to the mission field. He is a wonderful, thoughtful missionary. He shows great maturity and empathy. He was given the choice of whether to leave this transfer or wait until the November transfer, he decided to stay. Tuesday was transfer day. The transfers are communicated on Sunday night. They have Monday to pack, clean and get ready. On Monday, President Chesnut received a call from Salt Lake that there was another missionary coming in with the missionaries from the MTC. He explained that transfers had already gone out, could the missionary wait until November? He was told, ”No”. He talked with the assistants, they had a prayer and he told them he needed a few minutes to decide where to put the missionary. When they got back together they decided that the new missionary would be put with Elder D and his companion. It was an “out of the ordinary” decision. Elder D and his companion were told to come to the Mission Office to pick up the new Elder the next day.  The new missionaries are given their companions in a little ceremony. It’s a pretty special moment when they meet their trainer. Elder D stood up and became very emotional. He was crying so hard that he couldn’t speak. The new missionary walked towards him and pulled something out of his pocket and gave it to Elder D. They then embraced, both of them crying. Elder D was this missionary’s trainer 17 months ago, before President Chesnut was here. This Elder had only been out for 2 weeks and was struggling and Elder D realized he needed to go home. He recognized that the Elder needed to repent and work on some things. He gave the young Elder one of his name badges and said, “Go home and work hard, like I did, and bring this back to me”. That Elder had carried the name tag in his pocket for 17 months. He brought it back to him. If Elder D had gone home this transfer they would have never met. Elder D will now continue to be this Elder’s trainer. One of President Chesnut’s past Assistants said, “We move the names around on the board, The Lord provides the miracles”.

The Gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,
Elder and Sister Hardman

Picture: Can you tell which cookies I decorated and which Elder Hardman did?

Letter #27

When it rains it pours and pours!  It has been raining for the last two days! The temperature also dropped which is good because I can wear some different clothes, mostly I now put a sweater over the blouses I was already wearing, and bad, because it is cold!

Highlights of the week:

Monday we took Marshmallow Baseball for the zone activity.  They had a great time playing.  Elder Hardman was the pitcher for both teams.  I guess I was the cheerleader.  It’s fun to have a game they can all play. One Elder explained that they don’t keep score so that it won’t get too competitive, ha! If what we saw was non-competitive it is wise that they don’t keep score! We also went to our monthly FHE at the mission home with the senior couples and President and Sister Chesnut. I was asked to bring my famous breadsticks which are Rhodes dough rolled in butter, parmesan cheese and garlic salt.  I love being known for something so easy.

Tuesday our presentation with the Food Bank and two zones fell through so we went to zone training. We love zone training but it comes before transfers so there is always the transfer tension in the room. I was given two dresses to hem for a Sister that received them for her birthday from her family. You have to sew quickly when there is a chance they might be transferred to Winnemucca and you won’t see them again!

Wednesday we went to check out the Family History library.  They have a nice library here and house records that are unique to Northern Nevada so if you have family history from Nevada this is the place to look.  They have cabinets of paper records that haven’t been digitized yet but are available to look through. That evening we were invited to attend the Cold Springs Ward’s missionary committee meeting. Wow, were we impressed! This is what a missionary committee should look like.  You would think the ward that “has it all together” wouldn’t need us but they are the ones that have it so organized that they can see a place for us. We were handed three pages of people in the ward without a current home teacher and asked to check on them.  We were asked to visit a sister in the ward that night they knew had some health issues with her husband. We stopped there on our way home and the lady was so grateful to know that someone cared. Her husband was going in for surgery the next day. She appreciated us checking on her. After the meeting each week the ward missionaries go on splits with the Elders.  They have had 8 baptisms in the last 10 months and every one of them are active.  They receive a calling and have a member of the committee “assigned” to them to be there to answer questions and to help them prepare for the next ordinance. We would like to clone the Cold Springs ward.

Thursday was Stake Temple day for Stake Conference.  We also were able to help with a lesson.

Friday was a wonderful day. Once a year they have a Sister’s Training day.  This is only for the Sister’s, which of course bugs the Elders!  : ) The Sister Training Leaders arrange and plan the entire activity.  All of the Sister’s in the mission get to come, even from Elko and Eli.  They started on Thursday night with a sleepover at the Mission Home.  We didn’t attend that but it sounds like it was a special evening for them all.  There were 30 Sisters there.  The next day is workshops, training, questions and answers, council from Sister and President Chesnut, testimonies and a wonderful Sister Beutler lunch.  It started at 9 and went till 3.  They all brings bags of clothing for a clothing exchange.  They had fun with that! We went Thursday night to the Beutler’s to start the lunch so that all we had to do that morning was to put things in the crock pot and go enjoy the meetings. Sister Chesnut explained to the President that sometimes Sisters just need to be together.  It was a joy to be a part of it.  Elder Hardman dropped me off and had to entertain himself all day. We haven’t spent that much time apart since we got here.  He didn’t cut a finger off either!

Saturday we worked on our ongoing move-in list for the Keystone ward and drove to Cold Springs to start on our list for that ward.  There is a noticeable distinction in the way we are received in the Cold Springs area, even from less actives.  We aren’t used to being treated so kindly. Saturday evening we had Stake Conference meetings and we enjoyed Stake Conference today.  President Chesnut asked the missionaries to stand up during his talk today. He said the missionaries accuse him of doing this to see if they came but he wants to have the members see the missionaries in their Stake.  We stood but Elder Hardman sat down too quickly and President Chesnut told him to stand again and that other older couples could talk to us if they wanted to serve a senior mission. Hmmm, I guess he trusts us to tell them the right things.

Another busy week!  We love busy!

The gospel’s true and we love you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Hardman

The picture is of our zone, Tuesday will bring changes!