Dear
Family and Friends,
Today is 9/11, a significant day in
our memory of pain, sorrow, loss, and sadness in a world where hate runs so
rampant with so many people who are Muslim jihadists. It has been hard to see the Middle East have
so many wars and so much killing. You
would think that we could show more love for each other, but even in this
country there is more hate shown than love, at least by the media. There is a lot of love out there, like all
the help in Louisiana but is it on the news?
Nope!! We pray for peace and love. For God is love and without God there
is no love.
Last Monday, Labor Day, we still
worked in the Office. But we left for
work early and met the Cahoons at The Waffle House for breakfast. It is a tiny place and they served big breakfasts
but had a limited menu—only 4 choices for waffles. It was good but not quite good enough to go
back. Then we went to the Office where I
wrote letters, answered emails, worked on the calendar, talked with the
missionaries who were there for their P-day, and assorted other things. Jim: I thought that maybe because there was no
mail and the Salt Lake finance office was closed, that this might be a lighter
Monday. Well so much for thinking. It was just as busy as ever, and I didn’t get
caught up like I had hoped. Pat: We left at 5:00 to pick up dessert and drive
to Larry and Holly’s for a wonderful sloppy Joe dinner, talked with the kids
about school, and played games. After
Holly put Harper to bed, the rest of us watched “Star Trek—Into Darkness” on a
projector TV system that Larry had borrowed.
It was good! Best was that we
could have it up loud and not bother the neighbors!!
Tuesday worked on Leadership Letters
all day and finally got them all done.
Got one missionary recommend in the mail for a young missionary coming
in January. We had Staff Meeting but
Pres. and Sis. Wakolo weren’t there because he had had an injection and didn’t
feel well at all and she stayed home to care for him. So he asked Jim to conduct the meeting and it
was short and sweet. Sister Cahoon spent
time teaching Jim how to take care of phones and me how to take care of iPads—both
jobs that she is doing now and we will do when she leaves. I don’t know how we will have time for them,
but the Lord will provide. We all went
to dinner at the New Asian Buffet in Maumelle to honor Elder and Sister Cheney
who will leave our mission next Friday.
We enjoyed lots of good food (too much!!) and enjoyed visiting.
We took turns talking to Brent on his way
home from work. Went home and finished a
movie and tried to exercise a little walking in place, but I shouldn’t have as
it didn’t leave me feeling good. Talked
to Shelley and Stewart, and Stew told us about his baptism!! He was so excited and said he felt so good!!! |
| Farewell dinner at the New Asian Buffet for the Cheneys |
Wednesday I processed the one
missionary recommend, send out letters to the parents of missionaries departing
in October, made lots of copies of pages that go in various things, came home
and did laundry, and even watched an old movie called “Phenomenon” starring
John Travolta. It is a food movie and I
cried at the end. Jim: I have apartment
folders all over my desk. Some opening,
some closing, some some renewing.
Thursday I started working on the
Mission Memories books of both the Cheneys and Cahoons, plus sending letters and
certificates to their stake presidents.
I also ordered the travel for the missionaries who will be leaving in
November, got another set of letters printed, envelopes made, stamped and ready
for pickup. We have a great mailman
named Johnny who is very active in his own church and loves to do stuff with
his one grandson whom he talks about all the time. He is so sweet and we love to visit with him
when he comes in. Helped Jim go through
lots of apartment contracts and file other things in his office. Did a quick run for some Pineapple Whip that
is in a tiny stand near us and is soooooo good!! After work I ate while Jim went for his walk,
then he ate, we watched TV, and I exercised walking in place. Not as good but I get to watch my dance show
that gets me going.
Friday Pres. & Sister Wakolo are
doing so much better and came into the Office to spend the day with us. They sat and read and visited and answered
questions and ate lunch with us and it was great!! We were supposed to clean the bathrooms, and
sweet Sister Cahoon and Elder Cahoon got there early and took care of our jobs
and theirs, too. We love them!! The Wakolos left at 3:00 and Sister H left at
3:30 to drive to Hot Springs, and we all left at 3:50 to go to a 4:00 movie
called “Greater” about a University of Arkansas football player named Branden Burlsworth,
who was not a natural at playing football but wanted to so badly that he did
everything they asked him to do that he went from a walk-on to a scholarship
player his Freshman year. And he did it
while staying true to his faith in God and studying his scriptures and not
drinking, etc. It was an inspiring,
uplifting story and we all cried at the end!!
Please go see it if you get the chance.
It is an inspiring as “Rudy.”
One funny story—so about two weeks
ago Sister Cahoon lost her keys. We all
looked everywhere, they looked all over their car and apartment, the keys were
nowhere to be found. On Friday all of a
sudden Sister Cahoon says loudly, “I found my keys!!” (holding them up from her
purse). She says over and over how she
had been through her purse at least 3 times, taking everything out, dumping it
out upside down and no keys, and now, suddenly they were in her purse. Boy, was
she doing the dance of joy!! When she
told Elder Cahoon, his response was a little subdued and then she remembered a
previous time of lost keys—he had lost his truck keys and was sure she had them
in her purse, but she didn’t and they looked for several days. Then one day he asks her to check her purse
AGAIN and see if they were there—and this time they were!! She couldn’t believe it and kept shaking her
head and denying that they had been there.
Then she realized that he must have put them there!! Sure enough, he had found them in another
pair of his pants and put them in her purse to “blame” her!! She was furious with him then, and now she
realized he had done it to her again!!!
Turns out he had found them in a cup holder of a car they had taken to
the body shop to prepare it to sell.
When he went to pick it up on Friday, he saw them, snuck them into her
purse, and waited for her to “find” them there.
Oh, she was furious again and kept hitting his arm (it looked worse than
it was!!) They love to “get” each
other. I am glad that Elder Hartzell and
I don’t do that to each other—I don’t think I could take the strain!! Elder Cahoon has Elder Hartzell laughing a
lot at his funny stories, and he will be greatly missed. They will often talk together for awhile,
then they will take a “work break.” After
we got home Elder Hartzell had a phone message about an apartment issue and
went back to the office for about an hour.
Saturday we went to the Farmers
Market at St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, bought some fresh produce, and took a
tour of the old orphanage. It is a huge
building built in 1908, 3-stories and a full basement, mostly empty now. They also had Elder care.
It has a beautiful old chapel with stained glass
windows (painted really),
and even has beds in a number of the rooms for summer
camps and retreats.
One guy lives there
in one of the simple rooms—it is the CEO of Heifer International!!
They try to do things simply and he decided
to live a simple life. Most impressive!!
When you think about what those nuns did
for all those years to help kids, and some elder care also, living a very
simple, but very busy life it is very inspiring. Afterwards, we went to the Office for about a
hour, then Arbys for lunch, then shopped at Kroger, went home and did the
vacuuming and dusting, paid bills, exercised and cleaned up, and met Larry and
Holly and kids at the movie to see “Pete’s Dragon.” It was good and we all enjoyed it. Found out that our grandson, Gary, is having
problems with his feet, growth related we think, and we are praying for
him. Got home in time to watch the last
10 minutes of the BYU/UofU football game.
What a heartbreaker for us!! And nailbiter
celebration for them!! 19-20!!
Today has been a beautiful day—so cool
this morning I almost put a sweater on. Picked
up Michelle and Caleb, enjoyed church, heard a homecoming talk of an Elder
Smith who just got home from the Utah Ogden/Logan mission. Gave a wonderful talk!! Enjoyed the classes especially RS about
President Hunter’s messages about families and couples working together to
teach their children. So glad I had such
a wonderful husband to lead the way. Jim: actually I was just trying to keep up
with my amazing wife.
Got word that a dear cousin, Julie, has
breast cancer and will have surgery tomorrow (Monday) and treatments to start
in October. We have her in our prayers
along with other members of our family and friends who have lots of different
struggles. We have quite the list when
we pray and all are important to us.
We love you all and pray you will
have a great week!!
Elder and Sister Hartzell
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