Dear
Family and Friends,
Transfer Week was a success!! And we have lived to tell the tale!!
Last Sunday several ward members
came back from helping in Louisiana at about 2:00 a.m. and still came to
church. Other members are still
there. They reported that there was great
destruction and lots of stuff that had to be gathered and put out to the curbs
for trucks to pick up and haul away. It is
considered a 1,000 year flood! Our son
Larry and his son Gary went down and participated in the relief effort. They often had to cut out wallboard up to the
floodline, leaving just the studs to hopefully dry out so the studs can
continue to be used and new wallboard put up.
They posted photos on Facebook and we are very proud of the work they
did!!
And last Sunday evening we were able
to have good phone visits with Joseph, Christi, and Shelley. It is fun to keep up on things that they are
doing.
Monday was Stewart’s 8th
birthday. I got to the Office and had to
get another “Mission Memories” book together for a missionary who was going
home one transfer early. Worked on
emails, helped missionaries who came into the office to email their parents,
and lots were around to play basketball.
The Cahoons were gone to the temple in Memphis, so Sister H and Elder
Hartzell and I held the office together.
We worked until 3:00, then we drove to the Mission Home to start working
on dinner. We put in the ham and the
potato casserole (already prepared) to cook, then made the green bean
casserole, cut up melons, made and cooked brownies, made a spinach salad, set
the tables, and got stuff ready to eat. Sister
Wakolo finished the Cookie Salad when she arrived, and the Cheneys, Cahoons,
and Sister H arrived about 5:30 to help finish things up. Sister Wakolo buys all the food and prepares it
for us cook and finish up. We don’t know
when she ever sleeps. Brent called
during dinner, so Jim and I took turns talking to him. After dinner, we cleaned up the kitchen, put
away food, and left about 7:50. Came
home, put our feet up, watched TV and went to bed.
Tuesday we had no new missionary
recommendations come in—not for new or Senior missionaries. I worked on emails, plus got photos of the
Departing Missionaries from Elder Cheney so sent those with letters to the
missionaries themselves and their families.
It feels so good to do those!!
Jim & I spent two hours in his office entering all the transfer
changes, which we saved and will submit on Wed.
We left at 4:00 to go to the church to help with the dinner for the
Arriving Missionaries. We had 21 come in
(one was a missionary who came back after going home to heal from an injury),
and had at least one or two trainers for each of them, so we had 78 for
dinner!! We ate Chicken Teriyaki, rice,
tossed salad, cookie salad, rolls and water.
All delicious!! We cleaned up and
left by 7:50, and put our feet up at home to relax and recover.
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| From left to right--The Cheneys, Sister Hartzell, Pres. Wakolo, Elder Cahoon, and Sister Wakolo at the Senior Table |
Wed. we got up early (5 a.m.) and
left by 6:00 to go to the chapel and help with breakfast. We cooked sausage, Sister Wakolo brought
scrambled eggs that she had made (don’t know what time she got up—4:00?!!), and
had bagels, cream cheese, cereal, and milk. After we ate and cleaned up, we gave our
presentations to the new missionaries and their companions. Mine was about keeping the Office informed of
changes in the contacts at home, sending stuff back in promptly, turning in
their baptism paperwork completely filled out (and readable) and signed,
checking on referrals promptly, etc.
Then Jim gave his presentation, and we headed back for the office while
the Cahoons gave theirs. We submitted
the Transfer in IMOS, then I worked on entering a lot of data in other
places. After the Transfer info was
processed, I started printing up a lot of reports for people to use: The Organization Chart with photos, the same
without, the phone roster, and Companionship Roster, etc. Some of those things I also send out in
emails for the missionaries to use on their phones. We left at 3:30 to go to the chapel and help
with dinner—Sister Cahoon cleaned and we wrapped potatoes to bake, Sister
Cheney did Stroganoff, Elder Cheney cut up fruit, and we all helped put stuff
out on the tables. Had the last of the
Cookie salad. Then we cleaned up. We saw Larry and Gary in the building and
gave them hugs—the youth of the Pinnacle Mountain Ward were there as one of the
young men was opening up his mission call.
He will be going to the California Los Angeles Mission. After their ward youth celebrated with him,
he and his mother and brother and Larry were invited into our meeting and the
missionaries sang the mission song to him and cheered for him!! It was great!!!! We left afterwards.
Thursday we got up early again to
help with the breakfast at the chapel, but it was a simpler breakfast. We ate cold cereal (all different kinds), had
bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, Nutella, jam, muffins, apples, fruit, and
juice. Much of this that they didn’t eat
at the time they carried with them later as they left for their assigned
areas. Our cleanup went quicker and we
headed for the Office at 8:00 and got to work doing more stuff as soon as we
got there. I had to send out Arrival
emails to parents with the photos of their missionary with Pres and Sis Wakolo,
with their new companion, with the new group, and with the new group and their
Trainers. They all looked happy and
ready to go!! I put a lot of paperwork
that they filled out in their files and gave some to Elder Cahoon, entered more
information into the computer, visited with Sister Thompson, the Mission Nurse,
about things she needed me to send her that I was not doing (so I will have to
go back to February to bring that up to date), and she told me she appreciated
all I did and that Sister Nicosia and I had been the most responsive in helping
get the information she needed. In
fairness, secretarial work is what I love but it is not everyone’s forte. I am just glad for the wonderful people
before me who did what they could. We
left the Office at 5:00, ate dinner at Panera Bread Co, got home and did some
stuff, Jim went to walk at 6:00 and I exercised at 8:00, just walking in place
in the apartment (it’s getting too dark at that time to go outside and one of
the treadmills is broken). Had some
mosquito bites that itched during the night and, of course, I was worried that
they were bed bug bites but found no evidence of bed bugs—thank heavens!!)
Friday we cleaned at the Office—Jim
did the bathrooms, I dusted, Elder Cahoon vacuumed the entry and hall, and
Sister Cahoon vacuumed the office as Sister H was home sick with a sinus
infection. She didn’t feel great on
Thursday so we are glad she stayed home to rest. I entered more stuff into the computer (I
have about 4 different places to put the information about the new
missionaries), went through their paperwork and sent to their parents the
letters they themselves had written along with a mission map that they could
use to track where their child/missionary was working. I went to the store with Elder Hartzell to
get a couple of things, then to the bank where we waited in a long line of cars
to deposit some money he had received for the mission (note to self--don’t go
on the Friday before a holiday weekend!!), finally got back to the Office and
finished up, leaving about 5:30 to go do our weekly shopping, made and ate
dinner, watched TV and went to bed.
Saturday we cleaned our own
bathrooms and kitchen floor, ate, and headed out with the Cahoons and the
Rasmussens to go to Scott, Arkansas. The
weather was perfect, cooler and clear all day.
There we visited a state park called the Toltec Mounds, which had Indian
ceremonial mounds from 2,000 years ago (not the actual Toltec Indians of Mexico
but other Indians),
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| The Rasmussens, Cahoons, and us at Toltec Mounds |
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| Elders enjoying the view of the lake |
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| Cyprus trees in the water surrounded by roots or other trees? |
had lunch at the Cotham’s Mercantile—an old store built in
1912 that looks like it is ready to fall down but had great hamburgers,
including one called The Hubcap that is huge!!,
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| Lots of old stuff inside the mercantile |
then went to the Scott
Plantation Museum where we learned about the processing of cotton and the
cotton gin and how they took care of the seeds.
It was all really interesting!!
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| Sister Rasmussen working the cotton gin model |
Got home about 4:00 and took naps, then finished the cleaning we didn’t
get done in the morning, and watched a movie.
We know that Stewart was baptized yesterday and want to say CONGRATUL-TIONS
to him!! We also started listening to
the BYU-Arizona game but couldn’t stay up until the end. We found out this morning that they won in a
squeaker—16-18!! Hooray!! Go Cougs!!!
Today we took Michelle and Caleb to
church and enjoyed some wonderful testimonies and lessons. Came home and just woke up from 2 hour (me)
and 3 hour (Jim) naps!! Much needed and
loved!!
We hope you are all well and
enjoying cooler weather as we had this week (lows in the 60’s and highs in the
80’s) and we finally think we have turned the corner from the summer excessive
heat. Woo Hoo!!
Love you all,
Elder & Sister Hartzell
