Dear
Family and Friends,
Last Sunday was sunny and cold. We picked up the Bowies on our way to
church. The talks in Sacrament meeting
and Prsthd/RS were all about Family History and Temple Work, including
Indexing. Michelle was there, and asked
for a blessing after church because she was having her eye surgery on
Tuesday. Came home, napped, and watched
some BYU TV while I fixed a nice spaghetti dinner. At 5:45 there was a knock on the door and
Larry and Holly and family were here!! I
set it up to surprise Jim as an early birthday present. We enjoyed a nice dinner together, had lemon
meringue pie and oatmeal chocolate chip or raisin cookies for dessert, then
played some fun rounds of “Head Bands.”
They left and we had good phone visits with Christi and Shelley.
Monday I got a lot done at the
Office. One of our missionaries who was
released last October has not been able to use his IPad. I kept working with SLC to get the problem
resolved. Finally, it is done and he can
use it!! Hooray!! I got all the first Departure Letters and
iPad information out to the missionaries who leave the end of March. Also, letters to all the parents of the 20
missionaries who will leave in June sent out asking for their latest contact
information. Sister Hess was in the
Office all day working on different things.
We also discussed the need to comply with the instruction that we are
only to have 4 computers in the Office (we have 5) and only 3 copiers in the
Office (we have 4). We will gradually
get rid of the extras. I had to do a
“Mission Memories” Departure Binder and stake president letter for a sister who
is leaving 1 ½ transfers early for health reasons. Ran errands on the way home, enjoyed our
leftovers, and had a quiet evening.
Tuesday was Jim’s un-birthday!! He is 17 ¼ years old!! Jim opened his cards, and we exercised before
work, went into the Office, and were surprised with lots of decorations in
Jim’s Office. The Office Elders and NLR
elders went all out and put up balloons and streamers and a nice sign, plus
birthday glasses and a pin to wear, etc.
It was all so fun!!!!!
I brought
in Oatmeal Cookies to share with whoever came into the Office. I worked on a variety of stuff, including
helping Sister Wakolo who came into the Office to take care of some
things. I wrote up all the Stake
President letters and certificates for the missionaries leaving March 28th. I had put all of the elder’s letters in
envelopes to mail, but had to stop when one of the sisters came in with her
companions. I didn’t want her to see the
letters so I put them aside to do later.
This was a tender mercy because the letter-template had been saved after
the last “health” release letter, so they all said it was a “health” release. I found this out because I started getting emails
back asking why that word was included.
So on Wednesday I redid all the sisters’ letters and sent out the emails
again and printed the correct letters up to put in the envelopes. It was a tender mercy that I was stopped
before I could insert the wrong letters in the envelopes. Little things like that make such a big
difference in how things go doing the Lord’s work!! After work I went shopping while Jim had a
nice phone visit with Brent. Went home
and had a quiet evening. We had some
tornado warnings but the storm passed north of us. There was some bad wind and rain and hail in
the storm that we missed. So sorry for
the folks who got hit bad. Some
missionaries were out of power for several hours.
Wednesday I finished the stake
president letters as I said above, finished my project of going through all the
missionaries’ files to make sure they had the needed information and looked for
the paper that belonged in the Vehicle Coordinator’s files. Nice to get that done! Had some problems with the fax machine and
called it in to SLC. They will send a
technician on Friday. We went to dinner
at the Dixie Café for Jim’s birthday and were joined by the Sorensens, and
Hesses, the Rasmussens, and the Greens.
We had such good food and a great time visiting and enjoying all these
wonderful Senior Couples. We are glad
the Greens, who are not missionaries any more, still come by to see us and keep
a good friendship going. Went home and
did two loads of laundry. Jim opened his
birthday gifts and I fell asleep watching TV (I often do). The Office Elders brought over a memory foam
mattress for Jim’s bed that came from a Senior Couple that had to return
home. Said it was nice. Jim: today I
studied James 5: verses 14 &15 where anointings are spoken of and in
addition to healing the sick it speaks of forgiveness of their sins. Both of which are predicated upon the faith
of the one receiving the blessing, as was taught by President Kimball “Faith is
essential for healing by the powers of heaven” Ether 12:12 “The need for faith
is often underestimated. The ill one and the family often seem to depend wholly
on the power for the priesthood and the gift of healing that they hope the
administrating brethren may have, whereas the greater responsibility is with
him who is blessed…” President Kimball Oct
1981New Era p. 47. I was impressed with
the blessing that the brother gave to the sister on Sunday prior to her eye
surgery. He discussed this concept from
James and then blessed her with forgiveness prior to a blessing of health. I had not remembered hearing that before and I
was impressed by it.
Thursday was very slow and
quiet. The missionaries had individual
Zone Meetings all morning. I made copies
of letters to send to our new mission president to review. I also finished up the Mission History that I
put in a big envelope and mailed to the Church History Department. Then I did a lot of shredding of old papers
and got rid of old stuff we weren’t using.
Was able to exercise both before and after work. Also did two more loads of laundry, and Jim
had a good phone visit with his brother, Dean.
Friday was another quiet day as it
is a day that the missionaries all do planning for the next week. I did more shredding, plus started printing
up the 40-year Mission Histories that go in the “Mission Memories”
binders. Also sent out letters to the
missionary and parents who will be going into the Mexico MTC the beginning of
May. He should have lots of time to
complete the paperwork that we are sending him.
Also worked on materials to go in the White Binder for the new mission
president. Did more shredding, and
assorted other stuff. The technician
came in and finally got the fax machine working again!! Hooray!!
Quiet evening at home, too.
Saturday we got up and drove to
Memphis to go to the zoo. It is a really
nice zoo and we had a great time. They
had Lego creatures all over the children’s area and places close by.
As we were leaving, we got a call from the Dotans
in Israel—her birthday is also on Leap Year day, so she and Jim wished each
other a Happy Birthday and talked about their birthday activities. Then we went to visit a dear friend, Bob
Ziegler, who was visiting his daughter Marlowe and her family who have lived in
Memphis for the past year. We had a nice
visit with the family, then Bob took us out to lunch and we ate great Memphis
barbecue and talked and talked for over 2 hours!! Sure is great to keep up with dear
friends. We drove back home, stopped at
Walmart for a couple of things (nice that it’s close to the apartment), and
went home to eat dinner and watch a movie.
Sunday (today) it is raining outside
and about 50 degrees.
We love you all,
Elder & Sister Hartzell
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