Dear
Family & Friends,
Monday was a busy day. I worked on contacting all the Senior
missionaries and Apartment Advisors about the Senior Social on Friday. I did Leadership Letters, emails, took care
of the information that Sister Wakolo brought into the office from the new
missionaries, had photos to upload and email to parents of Departing
Missionaries and New Missionaries. The
local missionaries had their P-day at a different building so it was pretty
quiet, just me and Elder Hartzell and Sister Hugentobler. Went to see the movie “Dr. Strange” in the
evening and liked it. It is quite
different.
Tuesday had a lot of the same kinds
of stuff to do. I have to be sure I had
added all the new missionaries and their parents to our email address contact
list. Jim and I cleaned the car after
lunch at a nearby car wash—it was looking pretty dirty inside, and we tell the
missionaries that they need to have a clean car so we need to set the
example. We exercised after work, then
took the regular church music off the iPhone 4s and put Christmas music in my
iPad to listen to at the Office. (We
tried to put it in the iPhone but it kept trying to put ALL the music in
instead of just Christmas music—very frustrating!!)
Wednesday was MLC—Mission Leadership
Conference. This is where the Zone
Leaders and Sister Training Leaders are trained about their responsibilities
and given some inspiring messages.
Sister Wakolo fixed a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with all the
trimmings—sure was delicious!! She even
had a friend make pumpkin cheesecake—Yum!!
I also helped Sister Wakolo with a project for Christmas—she had me ask
all the missionary parents (of 190 missionaries) to send photos of their child taken
between kindergarten and fifth grade. As
I get them in, I record them and forward them to Sister Wakolo. That has kept me real busy!!! I also ordered the travel for the
missionaries who are leaving during the February Transfer. Mid-afternoon we had a mock emergency drill
to test the missionary communications channels.
It went well. We went grocery shopping after work, and I did 3 loads of
laundry. I have been having some pain in
my right elbow, upper arm, shoulder and neck.
I think I clenched it too many times on the hike a week ago, plus all
the computer mouse stuff that I do. Also on Wednesday I had a “catch in my
get-along” but it was gone on Thursday—go figure!?!
Thursday was a “flitting” day where
I flit from one thing to another. I had
all those photos to take care of, paperwork to prepare for a missionary who was
leaving early for mental health issues (many missionaries suffer from
depression and other things), letters to send to parents of missionaries
leaving in just four weeks, and other odds and ends. We headed home and exercised, ate leftovers
for dinner, and tried not to think about all the things I wasn’t able to get to
that day.
Friday was a welcome break—it was
our Senior Social day at the Mission Home.
Everyone brought either a snack/appetizer or a dessert. We ate and talked and took turns having
interviews with President Wakolo. Sister
Wakolo fixed Hawaiian Haystacks and Beef Curry for lunch and it was delicious!! Then we ate the pecan pie/sweet potato pie/cherry
cobbler/apple tart/cookies, etc. that everyone brought. Wow—we really ate well!!! The best part was the concluding meeting
where the senior missionaries that will leave before next June shared their testimonies. We stayed until the end to help clean
up. We even dropped off part of our
dessert at Larry and Holly’s. They were
putting up Christmas decorations and it was very festive! Had a quiet evening at home.S
Saturday was a rainy day after a
nice sunny day yesterday. We cleaned,
worked on the budget, exercised, Jim organized photos on his computer (an
on-going project), got mine and Jim’s hair cut and mine colored, cleaned up,
and went to the North Little Rock ward’s Christmas in Bethlehem party. We thought there would be dinner but there
was only snacks so we came home and ate pot pies, watched some TV and went to
bed. The weather has cooled off and this
next week it gets down to 19 degrees on Thursday! What happened to the warm
south?! Of course, last summer we
complained about the warm south!
We enjoyed a lovely Sabbath today,
with some great testimonies in our Sacrament meeting, a good lesson in Gospel
Essentials about families, and a good lesson in RS about the tender mercies of
the Lord. Lots of rain yesterday and
some this morning.
The Church has started a
challenge: Light the World in 25 Ways
Over 25 Days. We are trying to follow it
and share the light of our testimony with others through many different kinds
of service.
We want to welcome our friends, the
Halversens, home from their successful and rewarding 23-month mission to Cape
Town, South Africa.
We hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Elder & Sister Hartzell
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