NMFM Week 13: June 11-17, 2012

Dear Family, My journal entries will tell you what kind of a week it has been for us -- there have been some extreme highs and lows.  Today I am especially thankful for my dad.  He has been a great support to me from day 1 of my life.  He was directed by Heaven in his choice of an eternal companion and that has been a blessing to all of us.  I am thankful for all of the fathers in our family who guide, protect, love, and comfort us.
     I am attaching a picture of Elder Hunt with an old Joseph City acquaintance, Bill Belshe.  The picture title is "Four Heads Are Better than Two!"  We send our love to all of you.  Elder and Sister Hunt

Monday:  The Langkildes were gone so we were on our own to run our end of the mission office.  The monthly baptism report arrived by email from SLC so after I printed it out, I checked it against each handwritten report for accuracy (67 this month).  It is a pretty long and tedious process, but there are always errors that need to be corrected.  We have two days to submit any changes that need to be made before the final report comes out.  This is the permanent record that is kept by the church.  I also entered 11 new baptisms that had come in from the missionaries.  Monday is always a busy day for Elder Hunt as the Key Indicator reports are FAXed in from the Zone Leaders in the morning and his report is made from those eight zone reports.

      During the evening Maria called to visit about a phone call she had received from Marla regarding my mom’s alarming condition.  After her call, I phoned Maren to see if she could come down to help out AGAIN.  Maren said she would be willing to come and would try to book a flight for the next day.

Tuesday:    I entered the baptism report information onto a spreadsheet that the NMFM keeps in binder with the original reports filled out by the missionaries.  Elder Hunt worked on cell phone usage reports.

      Maria picked Maren up at the airport in the morning and the two of them drove to Virden and arrived in the afternoon.  They found Marla’s report to be accurate:  my mom was confused, could not feed herself and could not swallow very well.  She fell a couple of times as well.

      Paul called and during our conversation I asked him if he could email me the Ether 2:12 card he made for me a 6 years ago for girls camp.  Sure enough, he still had that file and sent it.

Wednesday:  Our assigned devotional day is Thursday and our original plan was to do a patriotic theme for Flag Day, but since we would be gone on Thursday, we did it today.  I printed out Ether 2:12 on flag paper and also printed out cards for our office folks.  We sang “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and also “God Bless America” for our hymns of the day.  It was good!  We spent the afternoon loading up supplies for our Thursday road trip.

     Maria called my mom’s Dr. and he asked them to take her to the Safford ER.  John and Maria took her and after a lengthy evaluation they admitted her to the hospital.  John and Maria returned to Virden in the early hours of the morning. 

Thursday:  We left our yard at 6:15 am, parked our car at the mission office, and headed out on another road trip in the Silverado pulling a trailer.  Our first stop was at Kayenta and we had a fun visit with Elders Marsh and Belnap. It was the first time for us to see the facilities there.  The elders live in a duplex modular home by the church.  Two senior couples have trailers parked there also, but they were both gone. The elders had a district meeting to get to, but we stayed and finished up a couple of cleaning chores before we left.  I noticed a little apricot tree in the yard so helped myself to the few that were left on the tree.  I got my “apricot fix” for the season!

            We took Elders Jamison and Kaulia to lunch at Denny’s in Tuba City before they had to leave for afternoon appointments and then the work began.  Elder Hunt moved in a new washer, dryer, and stove into the Boothe’s trailer and also moved the old washer and dryer out to the trailer. What a work-out!  Then we took a stand-up washer/dryer combo over to the missionary couples’ place by the church.  I had a delightful visit with Sister Olsen while the menfolk took care of the laundry room exchange.  She told me that she works in the Family History center there in Tuba City and has been instrumental in building a rather substantial Navajo data base by visiting many of the outlying areas from Tuba City (including Winslow).  She told me that last month their ward did temple work for 600 names that they had submitted.  Before we left I had to go give Sister Droddy (Jimmer’s aunt) a good-bye hug as they will be heading home to New York next month.  Also we got to meet and visit with the Littlefields who are gardening missionaries.

            Maria and Maren spent the day with my mom at the hospital and Maren also stayed with her during the night. 

Friday:  I spent a good part of the morning on the phone with Maren and Maria.  During lunch hour I went with Elder Hunt to try to recycle the cardboard crates the appliances came in that we took to Tuba City.  The recycle place wouldn’t take them so we disgustedly left and headed back to the mission office.  As we rounded the corner, we saw the big Mayflower sign so stopped to visit with Jimmy and Sandy for a few minutes.  We all needed the comfort from each other at that time.  Maria took my dad to Safford to visit my mom. Maren spent Friday night in the hospital again. 

            After we left the mission office, we drove to Red Mesa, CO (about 50 miles) to visit with a member of the ward there who offered to let the missionaries in that area stay at their place. The elders there need a different place to stay because the members’ home where they were staying foreclosed.  The purpose for our visit was to look the place over to see if it would be suitable for missionary housing.  We had a most interesting visit with the owner, Bill Belshe!  Bill and his family lived in Joseph city from 1979-1984 while he worked at Cholla.  He now owns 60 acres of property in Red Mesa on which he has a home, very large barn, and several horses, cows, and other animals.  He has built living quarters in the barn and that is where the missionaries will be staying.  They will be the envy of the other elders!

Saturday:  Elder Hunt drove down to Escrito to check out the missionary housing situation there.  The missionaries live in the same house as “Grandpa Roundy,” a 94 year old icon.  He got home in time for lunch so we called George to see if he would like to go with us to the neighborhood Chinese eatery – he hopped in with us and off we went.  He has been batching it all week and we enjoyed his company.  After we got back he helped Elder Hunt with a welding project that he wants to build: a ramp for moving appliances into trailers. George is a good welder, guess where he picked that up!

            I worked on P-day chores and spent time in the afternoon on the phone with my girls.  They planned to spend the night in a Safford motel so they could both catch up on some much needed rest -- then Maria planned to drive to Payson Sunday morning. Those girls have been angels this week and John has been a trooper. Words can’t express how heart-wrenchingly difficult this has been for me not to be there with my mom. John drove my dad to the hospital for a visit. Mom wasn’t very responsive as she had just been given a Benadryl type of medication for the painful itching on her head.  The doctor told Maren that the lab reports from the lumbar puncture showed that it looks like the shingles virus has gone into her spinal fluid and possibly to the brain area.   George is a strong proponent for the shingles vaccine for those over 60 – Elder Hunt said he is planning to chance being in the 50% that it is effective for. 

Sunday:  We have become pretty consistent ward hoppers and today we have decided to try Kirtland 3^rd Ward which meets at 11:0 – we have never attended that ward’s meeting.