Dear
Family and Friends,
Filled with the wonderful spirit of
Conference, we had a pretty good week.
Of course, we missed the Cahoons and worried about them as they were
headed to a reunion in Florida, but checked on them on Friday and they said
they were okay and just enduring a lot of wind and things being shut down. It sounds like they survived the hurricane
okay. We had no effects here at all.
It has been nice having the Greens
back in the Office, and they seem to be adjusting just fine to their old
positions. Sister H left on Wed.
afternoon for a grandson’s wedding in Utah, and she had a wonderful trip and
enjoyed the wedding in the Payson Temple!!!
Now she can see why we love it so much—she was very impressed and loved
the Spirit there!!
Monday I worked on sending out
letters to missionaries who will be coming in November, forwarding emails of
baptism photos to the sister who does our newsletter, and it’s fun to save
these photos to the computer. Lots of
emails to read and respond to, including the one the President sends out every
Monday. This one included the lists of
all the leaders being released and the new ones being called.
Tuesday I started printing up the
Letters to the President of each of the Departing Missionaries. They take about ½ hour to print up each one
and we have 12 going home. As they each
print up, I finish putting their Missionary Memories Binder together. It’s wonderful to look at the wonderful
mission they have had summed up in letters and callings they have had.
Wednesday worked on the MM binders
and more letters, worked on the 2017 Calendar—there is a lot to do for this and
I try to do a little every day. Sister H
left at noon, I processed the 3 missionary recommend-dations we received on
Tuesday, inputted the Leadership Transfers to get ready to submit tomorrow,
went out to dinner with the Greens and had a great time visiting with
them. Did our weekly shopping and the
laundry.
Thursday there were a lot of
missionaries who came into the Office in the morning—the new Zone Leaders and
Sister Training Leaders who were being transferred to their new areas. So proud of these wonderful
missionaries!! We submitted the final
list to IMOS, and I sent out congratulation letters to them with email copies
going to their parents, bishops, and stake presidents. I get wonderful emails back from the parents
thanking me for sharing that new assignment with them, and occasionally from a
stake president or bishop who is not surprised at all and very proud of the
young men and women who come from their ward/stake. I finished the Mission Memories, got some
help with ordering iPads from SLC as my order was not going through. I love having people in Salt Lake available
at any time to help with computers, IMOS, phones, etc., etc.!! Wish I could use them at home!!!
Friday was cleaning day at the
church office—Jim cleaning the men’s restroom and vacuuming, me doing the
women’s restroom and dusting. It takes
about 1 ½ hours, and then we start our office work for the day. I forwarded the finished September Leader out
to all the missionaries and their parents, printed up baptismal photos to go on
our boards, printed up the programs for the Departing Missionaries Monday night
and the Arriving Missionaries Tuesday night, worked on the 2017 Calendar and
updated my own desk calendar for October.
The Assistants were in the Office Thursday afternoon and all day Friday
doing all the Transfers lists. It is fun
to have Elder Hooker, Elder Hunt, and now Elder James around. This is Elder Hooker’s last days as an
Assistant, and Elder James’ first days.
Fun to see the transition!! We
visited during lunch and Jim told his conversion story and I told our courtship
story. We do have fun stories to
tell!! Went home to eat Taco salad and
watch TV.
Saturday we exercised, cleaned, went
to watch Gary’s and Bram’s soccer games (they both did well and either tied or
won their games). We are glad Gary’s
feet are feeling better. We loved
watching the BYU/Michigan State game on TV, and also watched the Ohio
State/Indiana game that was on at the same time. Both of our teams won so we were feeling
pretty proud of ourselves and our teams!!
Got food at Walmart, cleaned up, watched TV, picked up Sister H at the
airport and heard all about her fun trip and the Payson Temple. Made us homesick!! More TV and bed!!
This is Elder Hartzell: I had a very busy week of dealing with
various apartment issues, mostly getting two new ones set up for next
week. Today I am thankful for many
things. For technology, whether here or back home we can keep up with our
beautiful children and grandchildren and some of our friends through social
media and see the fun things they are doing with their lives. We have telephones we carry in our pockets
that we can speak and even see them on. My mother grew up on a farm in Iowa and
talked about what it was like when they received their first telephone that
hung on the wall. We have access to the
work of God from our prophets as they speak to us from across the world. We live here in the United States and still
have the right to worship as we choose.
In Sunday School today our teacher taught from Helaman 13-16 with the
title of the lesson “Repent and Return unto the Lord”. She began the lesson by
talking about the difference that may exist between our beliefs and our
behavior. If we are to return to the
Lord we need to use repentance to move our behavior up to our level of
beliefs. So many in the world are using
their rationalization to lower their beliefs to the level of their
behavior. We see too much of this in our
society and around the world. Jesus
Christ and his restored gospel is the only light and path that will lead to
happiness for now and in the future. We
often cannot control our environment, but we can control how we react to
it. The love of God will overcome all
the evil, but for now we must endure the trials we face with faith and love and
hope in that grand day that will come, and react to our circumstances as we can
imagine the Savior would act. .
Great week and much cooler
weather—Hooray!!
Love,
Elder and Sister Hartzell
No comments:
Post a Comment