June Begins

Dear Family & Friends,

            Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!!  Can’t believe it is June and summertime already!!!  We are sure you all have great plans for the summer—ours is to learn to survive heat (been in Vegas and Phoenix for a lot of years) and humidity (were in Japan for 2 summers, but that was 7 years ago!!) while doing missionary work.  However, since we do ours in an air-conditioned office, shouldn’t be too hard!

            Last Sunday evening while visiting Christi and Shawn and family, Shawn told us how he learned the simpleness of the Atonement and Faith in Jesus Christ.  Lily who is almost 5 had aching legs Saturday night and couldn’t sleep.  Christi gave her Children’s Tylenol and Shawn laid by her and rubbed her legs and told her stories and prayed with her.  The next morning she came in and announced that Jesus had healed her legs because He loves her!  That is what the Atonement and Faith in Jesus Christ is all about!!  Love our grandchildren!!!

            Monday we had missionaries at the church all day from 6:30 until 4:00 because several of their companions went to the Memphis Temple for a session because they were either leaving the mission next week or had a birthday in May or June.  So the missionaries left behind read and studied, then played games like volleyball, basketball, etc., for their P-day.  Meanwhile we were busy in the office doing our work, and when I got mine done, then I helped Jim with a couple of his projects.  I even got to read a little while and took a short nap. 

            Tuesday I was busy all day printing up a lot of the materials that are needed to go in the Departure Books I am putting together for the 8 missionaries who are leaving day after tomorrow.  I can’t print up their letters to the Mission President until the last of the letters had come in by Monday night.  There were other things that needed to be printed, too, so I kept our two main printers busy all day! 

            Wed. was a more normal day—we were both busy all morning, then I had a light afternoon and was able to call my sister Lois and visit with her. Helped Jim with another project, then we had dinner at Taco Bell and did our grocery shopping.  Went home and did laundry.  It has been cloudy everyday with some rain, but today we had a big downpour and thunder, too, during the day.  Thank heavens it ended before we left the Office.

            Thursday Jim and I made all the changes in IMOS (the internet mission operating system) of all the new Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  Then I wrote the Leadership letters to each of them, and emailed copies to their parents, bishops, and stake presidents.  These missionaries did their transfers that day, so they were around the office.  It felt really good!!  Sister Wakolo told me that she and her husband get to study with different missionaries often, he with elders and she with sisters, which she loves.  A while back one of the elders asked Pres. Wakolo why a missionary who was junior to him in terms of how long he was in the field was able to be a District Leader and he himself was not given that opportunity.  President Wakolo asked him, “Have you asked the Lord?  He is the one who makes the call, have you asked Him why?”  That was powerful!!  Have we asked the Lord how we are doing and is there more He requires of us?!!  Jim: Some days are quite stressful to get everything done.  I had two this week, thankfully they were not back-to-back. It is usually about not setting something up for a new apartment that I find out later that I forgot to do.  I have check lists but when you get interrupted, sometimes you don’t get back to what you were doing.

Beautiful bush of Lilies on our way to the Office

            Friday the Assistants were in the Office all morning finishing up the Transfer list.  They then called all the missionaries on Saturday and told them about their new assignments, where and with whom they would be.  The transfers then take place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Jim & I will input the final results on Wed. into IMOS.  It rained more on Friday and the humidity is close to 100%.  It is still in the 80’s so not too bad temperature wise, but getting warmer.

            Saturday was a fun day.  We did do some vacuuming and dusting, but also went to breakfast at Ihop with the Cahoons and Sister Hugentobler.  Then we all went to a local small park called “The Old Mill.”  We loved it—it is a beautiful garden area with structures made of cement but made to look like wood.  It was even prettier in the spring with lots of flowers but we missed it.  We will try to go again in the fall and see the autumn colors.  It is close to the Office, we just have to make the time to go there. 

Sister & Elder Cahoon and Sister Hugentobler and Sister Hartzell

Jim & Pat in front of the water wheel

Jim inside the Old Mill

One view of the Old Mill

The gardens at the Old Mill

Pat sitting by the water wheel

Sister Hugentobler in a bridge made of cement but made to look like wood

Jim took me home, then went to the Office for 2 ½ hours, while I watched TV and took a nap, and worked on the budget.  We also exercised, which is always good for us.  We are grateful to both feel good right now!

            Today was a lovely Sabbath and Fast Sunday.  We felt the Spirit all day!!  Beautiful testimonies and lessons.  RS lesson was about Family Traditions and one sister shared that their family had a family motto:  “Build a bridge and get over it!”  I think that is awesome!!  That helps with so many different things in life!!!!

Jim: In priesthood the EQ president, Brother Tobler, gave a lesson about being a dad and how that is different than just a father. That includes focusing on the family’s needs and wants more than our own, spending quality time with them, using teaching moments, and showing by example how much we love the Lord.  He referred to a priesthood leadership meeting last year with Elder Renlund, who spoke about that one day we will be accountable to our Father in Heaven for how we treated our wives, our children, our church callings, and if we were honest in our work profession.  We need to keep our priorities straight.  It was a great discussion.  One of the things President Tobler shared was one of his treasures, a testimony written to him by his grandfather.  He then challenged us to write our testimonies to our children and grandchildren so they will have something specifically written to them from us that will carry on after we are gone. I have written my testimony in my journal and in some other letters over the years, but this would be a specific letter to each child.  That is a bigger challenge and a good thing to do.

            Hope you are all doing well and feeling good!

            Love, Elder & Sister Hartzell