Dear
Family and Friends,
We hope you all had a nice
Halloween! We were in the Office all
day. The floors in the Cultural Hall are
being redone, so the missionaries did not come and hang out there for their
P-day. That meant that it was real quiet
in the Office all day. I worked on some
of the Departure Letters for those leaving on Nov. 22nd, and sent
some letters to the Arrival Missionaries who just went in the MTC and will be
here on Nov. 22nd. At 4:30 we
drove to Larry and Holly’s and helped fix dinner and enjoyed the fun costumes
that Holly had worked on. We ate a
delicious pumpkin chili that Holly fixed and I helped make the “pigs in a
blanket” from smoked sausages and crescent rolls. Yummy!!
Then the family left to go trick-or-treating and we sat on the front porch
and handed out candy to the kids. We
also talked to Brent a little, but it was interrupted too much so say goodbye
pretty quickly. The costumes we saw were
lots of fun—some store-bought and some homemade, but all cute little
kids!! Larry’s family came home with a
lot of candy and shared a few pieces with us.
I helped Harper take her makeup off and get to bed—we read some books
together and she said a sweet prayer.
Then we headed home, watched some TV, and went to bed.
Tuesday was a good day in the Office—worked
on the Correspondence module in IMOS, sent out some letters to Departing
Missionaries’ parents, took care of some letters that came in, ran an errand
with Jim, worked on the Mission Memories binders, and took care of some medical
bills that came in. The smell from the
sanding of the gym floors was terrible so we kept the Office door shut all day
with a sign that said to Come In. We
also had a missionary who is sick come and stay in the Office. He was put in a 3-some so his companions
could go teach and leave him with us. He
has been coughing up blood and is quite weak.
He has been to the Emergency Room 3 times and is trying to get in to see
a regular doctor. Went home at 5:00 and
exercised while our spaghetti sauce and spaghetti squash was cooking. Had a quiet evening.
Wednesday I worked on emails and
sorting through a bunch of papers. Then
Jim and I left at 11:30 to go get pizza for a missionary meeting that was over
at the Pinnacle Mountain building. We
picked up 22 pizzas and kept them warm in the kitchen’s ovens for an hour until
they had the lunch break. We stayed and
cleaned up so we were gone for 2 ½ hours.
I am pretty caught up—especially because no new missionary recommends
came in on Tuesday. We went grocery
shopping and did laundry and I worked on the budget recording receipts.
Thursday I started shredding
files. I found out that we are supposed
to keep returned missionary papers only 6 months to one year, and we had them
stored in the church attic going back to 2012!!
So I shredded all of those. Jim
is supposed to keep his financial records for 3 years, so I shredded the 2012
of his. This took all day!! The new missionary couple, the Harrises were
in the Office for a while as he had to do some stuff on the internet and they
don’t have good Wi-Fi where they live.
So she helped me with the shredding—me pulling out the staples in the
packets that were too thick to go into the shredder, and her putting the papers
into the shredder. Sure saved me a lot
of time!! I also put some files in the
file box and moved other files around to make more room in the drawers I use
the most often. Went home and exercised. Got word that our nephew’s granddaughter had
successful heart surgery and is recovering well. We were glad to hear that!!
Friday Jim & I cleaned for 1 ½ hours,
worked on emails, shredded more documents, and printed up a Stake President
letter and certificate for the missionary who has been sick. He was going to fly home on Saturday with an
early medical honorable release. Sure
hope that they will be able to find out what is wrong with him!! He wants to return and finish his mission. They put the finish on the gym floor today
and the smell from the fumes was terrible.
We had the doors closed and a fan blowing at the window. Jim had to go outside several times to get
some fresh air. Jim had a new project
today to find and edit the Emergency Action Plan for the mission in the case of
a disaster. It was mostly okay except
for the contact information. It also
raised some questions he is researching about how they know which members to
contact in the case of a disaster. There
is a calling tree, but how do they have access to it in an emergency. Had a quiet Friday night.
Saturday it has cooled off and a
high of only the low 70s. We went to
Larry and Holly’s where Jim helped Larry with a project, and I spent time with
Bram and Harper. Gary was gone to the
temple and Holly went to work out. Their
rooms were all picked up and beds made and it looked great!! I helped Harper put away her clean laundry, then
we played Go Fish, gathered up all the inside Halloween decorations, and they
went to play with their friends. I was
able to have a good visit with my cousin who is enduring chemotherapy and it
was good to talk to her. We ate lunch,
then went home to vacuum and dust our own apartment, and I finished the October
budget. We are doing good. We exercised
and took showers, ate dinner, and went to see the movie, “Inferno.” It was pretty good but not as good as the
other two in the series. We turned our
clocks ahead and stayed up later instead of getting the extra hour of sleep!!
Today is wonderful and cool—high of
only 73. We took Michelle and Caleb to
church with us. We enjoyed the
testimonies in church, but there are many who are dealing with illness and
problems, so I was glad when our RS lesson was about Joy. It has to do with our attitude and desire to
be happy and have faith. A quote from
Elder Russell M. Nelson’s Fall Conference talk:
“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives,
and everything to do with the focus of our lives. Joy come from and because of HIM.” For a closing song we sang “Joy to the World.” Stopped by the Office on the way home so Jim
could work on some stuff he did not get done on Friday, and I took a nap. Now we are home and Jim is napping and I am
writing to all of you!!
We did have some bad news on a
couple of things, nothing I can share, but it is hard to feel joy when you are
dealing with sadness and disappointment.
Hopefully things will get better in both of the situations that have
come up.
We love you,
Elder & Sister Hartzell
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