Dear
Family & Friends,
There is a big effort in the two
local stakes in the Little Rock area to go and help with the clean up after
huge flood in Louisiana where thousands of homes and a few of our church
buildings were flooded. From the Little
Rock Stake they had 6000 volunteers. Our
son Larry and grandson Gary went down as part of the effort. They had to take their own tents, food and
water to drink and hand tools. The
Little Rock Ward bishop went with his son and reported today that they were
mostly ripping out wallboard in the homes that have lost everything. There are
areas that have never seen flooding before.
They call it the 1000 year flood. What a blessing the Church is to these devastated
areas, bringing in supplies and labor. New thought, there is a sister and her
grandson we have been picking up to take to church each Sunday. It is exciting to see her growth in returning
to activity after many years of non-attendance.
One of the missionaries spoke
today in Sacrament meeting and talked about how important the family is in God’s
plan for us. We are so impressed with
the young missionaries and their ability they have developed to speak on great
topics like this one.
Last Sunday after our church meetings, we rested and ate dinner, and we
watched part of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics, and this past week, from
time to time, I have watched various events on my iPad Mini. I continue to enjoy the wonderful athletes
and their hard work and dedication that has brought them together. Most of the athletes are peaceful and helpful
with each other, but sadly some countries still do not get along with other
countries. I feel that the Olympics are
one place that people show that they can be above their country’s politics. I am one of those that can cheer for the
other team if they make a good play, and feel that sportsmanship means more
than championship. Ok, that’s my 1 cent
worth!
Last Sunday we also had good phone
visits with Christi and Shawn and their family.
Monday Jim was busy with bed bug issues most of the day, and bill paying. Some missionaries had to be moved out of
their apartments because the bugs kept coming back. So he is looking for new apartments. I worked on letters to get out and some
projects for Sister Wakolo and for Jim.
In the evening we had a nice phone visit with Brent on his way home from
work, and later with Shelley and cute little Maxwell—he can’t talk yet but can
smile and laugh and coo!! Love it!!
We have been praying for Senior
Couple recommendations to come, so each Tuesday I eagerly look for them. We did get two young sister missionaries’
recommends, but no couples yet. Please
pray for us!! If we don’t get them, then
the young missionaries have to come into the Office and work and can’t do their
regular missionary work. I love that we
are here so that they don’t have to be.
It is fun when the missionaries tell us about their grandparents who
have served, but as far as I know none of their grandparents are serving
currently. They sure appreciate us and
we are glad to be here!! I also
completed three Mission Memories binders, and we had a Staff meeting in the
afternoon. We exercised in the evening
and cut up fresh peaches to freeze—these are local and delicious! I do miss our Utah peaches, but these are
good, too.
Wednesday was busy with more Office
letter stuff, went to Sam’s Club for food for the Mission Leader Conference on
Thursday (MLC), and in the evening the Cahoons took us to dinner at Cheddars in
Little Rock to thank us for helping them with the cars last week. The food was delicious!! Came back to the apartment and played some “Lucky
Unders” (thank you, Halversens, that is one of our favorite games) with the
Cahoons, and when they left, watched some TV while doing 2 loads of laundry, and
went to bed.
Thursday was the MLC and we had the
Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in meetings in our building all
day. Jim and I went and picked up the
Chick-fil-A chicken to go with the salad and grapes and cookies and chips we
served them for lunch. Then I sent
letters to them congratulating them on their new assignments, and send email
copies to their parents, bishops, and stake presidents. So proud of these great young men and women!! We also got a new Office Elder. Elder Heidinger was made a ZoneLeader, and
Elder Lindstrom is the new companion to Elder Boggess.
Friday was a hodge-podge day. I did a little of this and a little of that. Jim reports that you can see some desk top
surface, which is a good sign that he finally got caught up with missing the
two days last week. Most of my projects
I had to do this week were done, so I did clean-up kinds of things. I am trying to make a new desk manual to help
the person who replaces me be able to know what to do. I know, I have a year before that will happen,
but we never know what will happen and I want to be ready just in case. The Assistants were in the Office and working
on the Transfer lists some more, especially trying to figure out rides to and
from the Temple. Because there are a lot
of changes this time, a lot of missionaries are having to be moved around and
it has to be all well thought out by the Assistants. It was fun watching them go over stuff and
figure out more things that needed to be done.
They are really hard workers!!
For my Japanese friends, oteskare sama des (probably misspelled it!)
Did
our grocery shopping, went home, put our feet up and relaxed!
Saturday we vacuumed, dusted, read
and answered emails, napped, exercised, and did assorted other things,
including watching more Olympics. Felt
we had accomplished a lot!
The miracle I will tell you about
happened to one of our Senior couples.
Two weeks ago when we had all that rain this couple and two elders had
gone to teach a part-member family. The
road crosses over a small creek and has never been a problem. When they were done teaching and driving
home, they came to the creek and it was a bigger stream, but they still tried
to cross it, in their SUV. It whipped
their car around and had them going down backwards for about 500 yards. They wisely put down their windows, and when
the car was stopped by a tree, they climbed out onto the roof. Except for the sister, who went down into the
water. One of the elders grabbed on to
her arm and promised he wouldn’t let go.
Her husband came to that side of the car and grabbed her other arm and
together they pulled her up on the roof.
They were able to go down the other side of the car and get onto solid
ground. They walked back to the people’s
house and were well-taken care of and given dry clothes and a place to sleep. The next day the creek was small and they
were driven into town and are renting a car while their old one was finally
towed out of the creek and is totaled.
So now they are looking for a new car.
I asked the sister how she felt and she said that though she was afraid,
she felt calm and peaceful and knew that whatever the Lord wanted was fine with
her. We are glad He helped her to live
and be safe. What a wonderful miracle!!
We love you all and pray for
miracles in your lives,
Elder & Sister Hartzell
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