Happy Pioneer Day Tomorrow!

Dear family and friends,

            Sunday, July 16, was sunny, hot, and muggy.  We enjoyed our meetings and the good feelings in the Little Rock Ward.  Had nice phone visits with my sister, Lois, and a long 2-hour visit with Christi and her family.  We also took naps and watched the Mormon Tabernacle in the morning and the Pioneer Concert with Alex Boye’ in the evening.  Loved all the good music!

            Monday, July 17, I worked on the calendar, taught Sister Sorensen how to do Dep. Letter #3 that includes the missionaries’ itineraries.  I also worked on some iPad issues, took care of some personal business, finished and printed up and mailed the 6-month Mission History to Salt Lake City, and updated my desk calendar.  After work we ate dinner, then went to see the movie, “Spiderman.”  It was pretty good but not great.  Came home, made our lunches, and went to bed.

            Tuesday, July 18, I printed up 4 more Mission Histories to go in the “Mission Memories” binders, worked on updating the 4-year address list for the same binders, updated drivers license information, showed Sister Sorensen how to do the Mission Memories binders, putting in the copies of the letters in their files.  I also updated a lot of the papers with Sister Sorensen’ name instead of mine.  That feels strange!  Came home, exercised, talked to Lois and Brent, and was grateful that Renae took Lois to the doctor’s for her last checkup before she leaves.  She will really miss him as he has treated her so well.  Had a quiet evening.

            Wednesday, July 19, Sister Sorensen processed the 3 new missionary recommendations that came in.  Because she had to do that at my desk, I went through missionary files that were a year old and shredded them (we are only supposed to keep them for a year), and moved some of the files around.  I also worked on several iPad/Samsung tablet issues with the help of the people in Salt Lake.  After work we did some shopping at Walmart and ate dinner at a little restaurant called “Two Sisters.”  The food was delicious, but we are not used to the deep-fat cooking and I didn’t feel very good that evening.  We did two loads of laundry.  Talked to my sister who told me about cousins picking her up and taking her to see our dear Aunt Wilma and say goodbye to her.  Also tried to comfort her after a difficult evening.  My heart aches for her.  I was glad a ward sister had brought her dinner and was there to help her also. 

            Thursday, July 20, showed Sister Sorensen how to take care of mobile device issues, cleaned up one of my desk binders that had accumulated too much stuff!, and had Sis. S. do the Arrival #1 letters to the missionaries coming in September, and the Arrival #1 letters to the parents of those missionaries.  Jim and I took some things to the post office and went to Holly Lobby and Michaels looking for frames to match the ones that are on the hallway walls near our office that have photos of the past 14 mission presidents and their wives.  All 14 match, but we can’t find any more that will match, so we are trying to decide what to do.  We have even looked online, but so far no success.  Guess we will have to get something different. Also, while we were at Michaels, the lady at the counter saw our name tags and asked if we were Mormons.  She then said that she had been a Mormon once, but her father (whom she did not get along with) had her name taken off the records of the church.  We asked if she would like to talk to the missionaries and she said “yes” and gave us her card.  So we gave it to the Sherwood sisters and hope she will take the lessons.  Fun to do some actual missionary work!!  Jim: This has been a week of mostly apartment issues.  Trying to find a new one in the Memphis area and dealing with other renewals and a closings.  Some apartment managers are very responsive to renewals and others are way slow.  Exercised after work and talked to Lois.  Glad she is having some help from a physical therapist to get her more active.  Did one more load of laundry.

            Friday, July 21, Sister Sorensen and I worked on the Arrival #2 letter.  This one includes a bunch of information papers that need to be filled out and returned, so I had to update signatures of Pres & Sis Hansen and Sister Sorensen, then print up a lot of copies.  We printed up all the letters (there were 25 of them!!), and did an assembly line of all the papers that went in each envelope.  This took all day.  I also ran to the magnet store twice to pick up magnets for the Transfer Boards in the President’s Office and also his office at home.

We did our grocery shopping, got gas, dropped off mail, and had a delicious dinner of fish and veggies.  Tried to watch TV but feel asleep.  I have not been sleeping well lately L

            Saturday, July 22, did both exercises, dusted and vacuumed the apartment, recorded receipts, ran errands (still no success on finding the frames), paid some bills, visited with my brother and my sister and my neice.  In the evening we went over to the Hess’s apartment to have some delicious peach cobbler and visit with Elder and Sister Griffiths who are Self-Reliance missionaries.  They are working hard to get the program going here in the Arkansas and Memphis stakes. 

            We hope you are all doing well.   We can’t believe we have about 5 weeks left.  Hope we can stay caught up with everything!!

            Love, Elder & Sister Hartzell

These are some of the different colors of the crepe myrtle trees that bloom here in June and July.  We love seeing all their pretty colors.  Thought we would share them with you.