Hartzells--Arkansas Little Rock: Rain, rain, go away!

Dear Family and Friends,

Because I ended last week’s blogpost with what happened last Monday, I will start this week’s with Tuesday. Got a few mosquito bites on Monday and woke up during the night itching away. I put Aloe Vera on them, but it didn’t help. So got out some Benadryl cream and that was a little better. Poor Lily also got a lot of mosquito bites while she was here, all over her legs and arms. No fun!!

We received two Missionary Recommendations in our mission email and I processed both of those. Also worked on the Departure Books, but I am going to change the name of them because of a letter I send out to them before they come that tells them they will receive a “Mission Memories” book at the end of their mission. I like that much better! Had a good phone visit with a senior couple who will be the next Mission Nurse. He is the one who will do it, and she will serve with him. They had lots of questions and I was happy to answer them. They won’t be here until next January. Got my hair cut, we went to Sam’s Club for Gatorade for the two Zone Conferences, watched the Olympics, and went to bed at 10:15 (early for us).

Wednesday was the Zone Conference for the 3 Arkansas Zones. We had a group photo taken and will send out a copy when we get it. We would have gone in for the meetings, but we had told the Cahoons we would help them examine and evaluate cars, so we spent the morning doing that. We look for cleanliness inside and out, for dings and scratches and dents, and we check all the paperwork in their glovebox to make sure they have the car registration, insurance papers, accident report papers, their gas record book, and the owner’s manual. Most had everything, but not all. One was even missing their car registration which is a big no-no! Also checked the fluid levels in the engine and left their hoods up if they needed to add more windshield washer fluid or radiator coolant. Our Little Rock Ward provided a delicious pulled-pork lunch with beans, salad, apples, and brownies. So Good!!! After lunch we had informational meetings about the care of cars, the need for the Emergency contact information to be in each apartment and current (that is where the missionaries go in case of an emergency), and assorted other stuff. Elder and Sister Thompson talked about bed bugs—so many missionaries have them and are sharing them with each other. We have professionals come in and spray, the Office Elders also go spray, and the missionaries have to do a lot of work to wash and double drying clothes and bedding, and vacuuming, and clean really good. Some keep getting reinfected. I feel so bad for them as the bed bug bites itch and look bad. I was also able to get letters out to new missionaries (and their parents) who will be coming in October. We ended up not leaving the office until 7:00 p.m., had a quick dinner, and watched Olympics.

Thursday we drove a mission car from a dealership right by our apartment to Memphis for the Zone Conference that was held for the two zones in Tennessee. We helped check cars there, too, had a delicious lunch of burritos and taco salad, and similar meetings to what we had on Wed. Because the Cahoons needed to talk to a lot of the missionaries about their cars and give them the fluids for their engines, so we finally left about 5:30 and got home about 8:00. We rode back with the Cahoons and had a lot of laughs from the nonstop stories he tells. The Cahoons’ apartment kitchen, part of their living room, and one bedroom flooded the night before because the apartment upstairs had a flooding from their washer hose, but don’t know if it was the dishwasher or clothes washer. So they have had fans going, and a dehumidifier constantly since then. After we got home, we ate a light dinner and fell asleep watching the Olympics.

This whole week we have had rain everyday most of the day. Friday was overcast all day but not much rain. The nice thing is the temperatures have been in the high 70’s and mid 80’s, so that is much nicer, but with tons of humidity. Dusted the Office, sent out more letters, worked on Mission Memories binders, updated the calendar with changes the president wanted made, and sent it out to everyone. I am learning how to take care of iPads. Sister Cahoon usually does it, but she and her husband are leaving the end of September. We also have the Cheneys leaving in September, and 3 other couples leaving in October!! And no new senior couple recommendations coming in!! We are desperate. We will have to take full-time young missionaries out of the field to work in the office, and wards that need senior couples will just not have them. Please, if any of you are considering a mission, please send in your application/recommendation and request Arkansas Little Rock. We would love to have you!!!! Jim was really busy in the office today due to missing the last two days, and would have stayed later, but IMOS financial went down at 6pm so we left about 5:45. Got Arby’s for dinner and ate at the Office, then went to the store for food and home to watch the Olympics

Saturday we cleaned our bathrooms and kitchen, I recorded receipts for our budget, sent out the blogpost from last week, Jim stopped at a farmer’s market for fresh food and went to the Office for an hour to get caught up on stuff from being gone two days this week, it poured rain all day (some Little Rock natives have said this is the most they have had at one time ever!!). Good day for staying inside and watching-----the Olympics!!!!

Sunday, we enjoyed church and good talks, lessons, and seeing good people. Took Michelle and her grandson Caleb with us. They really enjoy going to church and meet with the sister missionaries once a week. Her daughter, Caleb’s mom, isn’t interested. School started on Monday so Caleb told us all about it. Our own Gary, Bram and Harper started and they sent out fun first-day-of-school photos. We have seen a lot from friends on Facebook, too. Sure is a good time of the year. The unusual thing that happened today was this bright object appeared in the eastern sky and tracked across the skyline all day, people call it the Sun. We had almost forgotten what it looked and felt like.

We are including photos today that I forgot to post last week. Oops!!

Have a great week and we love you all!!

Elder & Sister Hartzell