NMFM Week 48

Dear Family,  We hope you are having a wonderful Presidents' Day weekend with friends and family!  We will be working hard tomorrow to get ready for more moves to be made this week.  Today we had a stake conference broadcast that was for stakes in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.  We enjoyed the talks and especially the one given by President Eyring.about the eternal nature of the family.  He spoke about the importance of being clean, diligent  and prayerful in our daily lives.  His personal experiences always illustrate so well the points he is trying to make in his talks. It was fun to walk into the Farmington Stake Center and have the William Paynes wave to us and point to where they had saved seats for us by them.  We send our love,Elder and Sister Hunt

NMFM Week 46: February 3 - 9, 2013

Dear family, I just sealed up a valentine card to each of our eight kids so PLEASE check your mail boxes this week!  We've had a very demanding week and don't look to see things let up before we complete our mission.  We came with the intent to "give it our all" and that is exactly how we are going to finish here.  It has been a privilege to be in the mission field during this time of transition and change of age.  We feel the spirit strongly as those in leadership positions make decisions in keeping with the change.  We love you and pray for you each day.  Love, Elder and Sister Hunt

Sunday:  We were pretty tired and it was hard to roll out of bed, so we opted to go to the later meetings in Kirtland.  We went to testimony meetings in both 2^nd and 3^rd wards and then came home for Super Bowl Sunday fare at the Paynes.  After feasting, Maren and I went with Jared to practice the organ while Elder Hunt went to find some Bed Bug eradicator.  Maren took Jared home and Elder Hunt and I went out to Bloomfield with a new bed frame, mattress encasement, and eradicator.  It took a couple of hours to finish the job out there at the sisters’ place, but we got it done and hopefully those sisters will “sleep tight and not let the bedbugs bite” from here on in.

 

Monday:  We were up bright and early so Elder Hunt could hitch up George’s trailer to the Silverado for our first venture at picking up new missionaries at the airport.  It was quite a sight watching those 26 (one recently injured elder didn’t come as scheduled) valiant souls walk in through the door to be greeted by their mission president and APs.  We hauled part of their luggage and had two elders ride in the back seat with us.  We went directly to the mission home where they were greeted with green chile/pepperoni pizza.  They were starving and all of them seemed to think it was a real treat!  We had our usual orientation meeting there and when we left there were tired elders lounging all over (the sisters were excused to go back to the bedroom they would be staying in that night).  We had more last minute shopping to do to fill requests that would go out the next day with missionaries heading to their new areas.

 

Tuesday:  The Apache building was buzzing with life when we arrived there a little after eight and the parking lot was full of missionary vehicles.  We were kept pretty busy with giving keys and instructions / information to various missionaries.  I was left with a pile of 10 baptisms that needed to be recorded and that made me pretty happy.  Recording those baptisms is one of my very favorite jobs.

 

Wednesday:  President Batt came into the office in the afternoon after taking the departing missionaries to the airport and was ready to talk about what went well and how we can improve with the next transfer event.  He gave us the list of the 7 or 8 new areas that we need to begin focusing on and asked us to check on a place in Kirtland that President Whipple had suggested might be a good home for four elders.

 

 

Thursday:  After taking care of our office duties, we went to Kirtland to look at the double-wide trailer that President Batt asked us to check out.  It’s not in tip-top shape, but will be adequate so we asked for a lease agreement to be sent to the mission office.  Elder Hunt was feeling a bit ragged, so we came home early (3:30) and I started a little sewing project that I had been thinking about for a few days.

 

Friday:  Another errand day:  took chairs to the Farmington 1^st and 3^rd  elders, went to see why the Farmington 4^th  sisters’ kitchen drain wasn’t working, ordered another 30 bed sets from the Mattress Outlet, ordered another eight chest of drawers, purchased 4 tables and some chairs at Rejuvenated Treasures, and ended the day by taking Maren with us to La Cabaña for dinner (and it was a GOOD place to relax and visit and enjoy the food!)

 

Saturday:  It was a snow day and a good day to stay inside and sew.  I finished up my project and it turned out really well.  Elder Hunt did paper work and also mended the broken chairs we brought back from the rez last weekend.

 

This week was pretty intense, with so much to do and so little time!   We have tried to visualize every mission church wide with the same intensity and busyness, WOW!  We will be getting approximately 30 new missionaries next month.  By June our numbers will be up to 220 – an  increase of 60 from what we now have.  This is an exciting time to be in the mission field and to watch how it all unfolds, which it does in a very natural way, only because the Lord is directing the work.  We feel so blessed to be able to serve together giving our all to building the kingdom.  The Church is true – we know it and we love it!

 

NMFM Week 45

Dear Family,  looking at the count-down, we are running out of weeks in Farmington.  We have a lot to do in these precious few weeks remaining.  I'm not sending last weeks's journal as it is long and detailed so will just send a brief synopsis of our week.  On Monday we worked to get ready for a road trip that would take us to most of our missionary outposts in Arizona.  We left Farmington at 7 am on Tuesday with 12 new beds, 2 chest of drawers, and an assortment of household goods.  We visited Tohlakai,and Tohatchi NM before crossing the state line at Window Rock.  We visited St. Michaels, Ganado, Polacca, Indian Wells, and then spent the night on Hunt Road.  On Tuesday we visited Holbrook, Winslow, Leupp, Flagstaff, and Williams before checking into the Flagstaff Fairfield Inn.  On Thursday we visited Cameron, Bitter Springs, Page, Kaibeto, and spent the night in the vacant Blue Salt/Inscription House missionary trailer.  On Friday we visited Kaynta, Many Farms, Chinle, and back to St. Michaels to deliver the good queen-size bed from Blue Salt to the Grimmets, a senior couple there whose bed was not up to par.  We arrived back in Farmington at 10 pm and fell into bed exhausted.  We picked up a load of Good Will stuff from missionary trailers in our travels that took some doing to unload on Saturday (IN THE RAIN).

     We were so glad to see Sunday come!  We went to Farmington 8th Ward to hear Jared play the organ and he did an awesome job!  Then we went to Farmington 1st Ward to hear Maren speak in sacrament meeting and she did a better than awesome job!  We feel so blessed to have the health and strength to keep going at the pace we have been keeping.  We look forward to our Senior Zone Conference in Chinle this Wednesday.  Today we are helping the elders set up a new apartment in Flora Vista and Friday we will go to Zuni and hopefully Ft. Wingate to set up new apartments in each of those places for missionaries.  We love you and pray for you!  Love, Elder and Sister Hunt

Fwd: Your Dad

Hi Linda,
Carolyn and I took a little trip with my dad and mom to Virden.  Enjoyed the bball game and get together at Beep's with your mom.  Then some of us went over and saw your dad and gave him a blessing.  He's looking pretty good!
Wendell
Picture label: Dad, Melody Richins, LeRoss and Mabel Jones. Back row:  Bruce and Merlene Lunt, Sharlene and Buddy Jensen (Virden Ward Bishop), Wendell and Carolyn Jones

NMFM Week 44: January 13 – January 19, 2013

Dear Family, I hope that by now most of you have received the January edition of "Linda's Lovenotes" that I sent out last week.  Maria reported to me that the polishing stones (from Grandpa Roundy) I took to Payson the week of June 30 are still in safe keeping at their house to be distributed among grandkids when we complete our mission.  Many of you will have the day off tomorrow to observe Civil Rights Day and we will be thinking of you as we busily prepare for our big road trip that we plan to begin on Tuesday.  We will tour a good portion of the mission delivering items needed for our next transfer when we will have an influx of LOTS more missionaries coming to our mission.  We will have 6 going home and 30 coming in!  We will see how long it takes us to complete our errand -- it always takes longer than planned because it is so much fun to stay a little longer and visit with those we go to see.  I think the plan includes sleeping in our own bed on Hunt Road Tuesday night. .  We send our love, Elder and Sister Hunt

Sunday:   Kirtland 5^th Ward was our meeting of choice when we left our apt.at 10:30, but as we walked into the stake building as sacrament meeting was about to start, we realized that it was 4^th Ward – they had not traded meeting times at the beginning of the year.  We enjoyed their sacrament meeting, then drove to attend sacrament meeting in 3^rd Ward.  Mitchell was the only Payne there as the others were home sick – we were disappointed we didn’t get to see all of them.  The Yazzie family was there and Brother Yazzie was to be given the Aaronic Priesthood that day.  We came home and rested before meeting Jared at the church for organ practice.  I even practiced the hymns I will be playing for our Jan 30 Sr. Zone Conference.  We missed George and Joanne’s Sunday dinner and visit, but we are happy they could have some R&R in such a nice, warm place.

 

Monday:  The highlight of our day was our visit with Dr. Aurelio.  He got all of his charts up on the computer and compared the 3 PET scans that I’ve had done in Farmington and then said, “Linda, your recent PET scan is negative and shows no ‘uptake’.  It looks like it is time for a ‘chemo holiday’ for you!”  I will see him one more time before we leave the mission.  I felt like dancing right out of that office – but instead hobbled out holding onto Dennis’ arm (due to my recent slip on the ice).  After we left the mission office at 5:30 we went to IHOP with Maren to celebrate our good news and I indulged in their strawberry/banana crepe again -- it was even better the second time.

 

Tuesday:  It was Zone Training day for the Farmington/Bloomfield  Zones so we got to visit with missionaries that live farther out that we don’t see quite so often.  It was a good day to pass out treats – new GPS, new cell phone booster, etc.  Several baptism forms came in with the elders, so it was a good day for me.

 

Wednesday:  My leg and foot were a dark blue and I had a bad throbbing on my shin bone where the skin had been broken.   By afternoon I decided I better go get it checked out, and since my favorite Dr. was in Hawaii, I saw his PA.  PA Mark thought we should have some pictures done to make sure there wasn’t a fracture, which was my main concern.   And there was no visible fracture, so I knew I just needed to “buck up” and get on with recovery.  Ouch!

 

Thursday:  Several baptisms came in that I needed to enter and I also worked on referrals.  After we left the office we drove straight to Flora Vista to talk to the owners of the little “loft” apartment that we had been made aware of.  The owners are Catholic, but seemed pleased with the prospects of renting to Mormon missionaries (boy, we hope they don’t let them down!)  We now have a signed lease agreement and elders will be moving in soon (right now the Flora Vista elders are living with the APs).

 

Friday:  We spent part of the day planning a trip to deliver beds, etc. for our next transfer day.  We will be having missionaries at locations where they haven’t been before:  Many Farms (2^nd companionship),  Zuni, Ft. Wingate, Joseph City (sisters), Bluesalt, Ganado (2^nd companionship),  Sanders (2^nd companionship), Sheep Springs, Flora Vista.  Elder Hunt helped me update my referral spreadsheet that I use for follow-up calls and texts.  He wasn’t feeling well so we came home in the early afternoon to regroup.  I invited Maren to come have stir-fry with me so I wouldn’t have to enjoy it alone as Elder Hunt was “off his feed” – it DID taste better because Maren was here!

 

Saturday:  It was another shopping day for us!  We went shopping for household items to set up three new apartments:  Flora Vista, Zuni, and Ft. Wingate.  We also went to the Mattress Outlet to see if all of our 30 beds are in now that we ordered -- they are in storage waiting for us to pick them up.  We will be picking up 12 of them on Monday to deliver to some of the areas mentioned above.  I also did a little sewing and it was fun to have my Bernina out on the table again. 

Frozen Lemons

Thought you might find this email interesting -- another one from cousin Mel Christensen

I grated (hand got really cold so I'd recommend doing it with processor/grater), bagged & re-froze mine, today & am looking forward to trying this concept out- luv me some "lemon water" so will enjoy using that way when I don't have any fresh-dc

Many professionals in restaurants and eateries are using or consuming the entire lemon and nothing is wasted. How can you use the whole lemon without waste?   Simple.. place the washed lemon in the freezer section of your refrigerator. Once the lemon is frozen, get your   grater, and shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on top of your foods.   Sprinkle it on your vegetable salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes,   whisky.... the list is endless.   All of the foods will unexpectedly have   a wonderful taste, something that you may have never tasted before. Most   likely, you only think of lemon juice and vitamin C. Not anymore.   Now that you've learned this lemon secret , you can use lemon even in instant cup noodles.   What's the major advantage of using the   whole lemon other than preventing waste and adding new taste to your dishes?   Well, you see lemon peels contain as   much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself. And yes, that's   what you've been wasting.   But from now on, by following this   simple procedure of freezing the whole lemon, then grating it on top of your   dishes, you can consume all of those nutrients and get even healthier.   It's also good that lemon peels are   health rejuvenators in eradicating toxic elements in the body.   So place your washed lemon in your   freezer, and then grate it on your meal every day. It is a key to make your   foods tastier and you get to live healthier and longer! That's the lemon secret!   Better late than never, right? The surprising benefits of lemon! Lemon (Citrus) is a miraculous product to kill cancer cells. It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy.   Why do we not know about that? Because   there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will   bring them huge profits.   You can now help a friend in need by   letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the   disease. Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects   of chemotherapy.   How many people will die while this   closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the beneficial   multimillionaires large corporations?   As you know, the lemon tree is known   for its varieties of lemons and limes.   You can eat the fruit in different   ways: you can eat the pulp, juice press, prepare drinks, sorbets, pastries,   etc... It is credited with many virtues, but the most interesting is the effect it produces on cysts and tumors.   This plant is a proven remedy against   cancers of all types. Some say it is very useful in all variants of cancer.   It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial   infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it   regulates blood pressure which is too high and an antidepressant, combats   stress and nervous disorders. The source of this information is   fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the   world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon,   breast, prostate, lung and pancreas... The compounds of this tree showed   10,000 times better than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used   chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells.   And what is even more astonishing: this   type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells. So, give those lemons a good wash, freeze them and grate them. Your whole body will love you for it!!!!!

NMFM Week 43: January 6 – January 12, 2013

Dear Family,  I'm sitting here huddled up in a blanket trying to make myself think it is warm outside. We are ready for the spring thaw!  We love you and hope all is well with you and yours. Love, Elder and Sister Hunt

Sunday:  The Yazzie family wasn’t at sacrament meeting this week – maybe our wonderful visit scared them off.  We will have to follow up to see what’s up.  We enjoy sitting with the Jimmy Payne family when we visit Kirtland 3^rd Ward (their meeting block starts at 1pm this year).   Dinner/breakfast was waiting for us when we got back to Farmington.  The Paynes had invited the  Allen family (he is Bishop of Farmington 6^th Ward which meets in the same building as 8^th Ward) as the mother was in Canada attending her grandmother’s funeral.  We enjoyed getting acquainted with their cute family. 

 

Monday:  It was a busy day in the office preparing for Zone Conference week.  The APs needed to use the computer in our corner of the office so we found other tasks to work on.  Elder Hunt spent a good part of the day training Elder Combs on phone business, which he will now be in charge of.  Towards the end of the day Sister Batt came in with a couple of documents that she wanted to have scanned so she could put them on a jump drive.  She is such a cute and sweet lady, everyone is always happy for a chance to do something for her.  All of the zones in our area (Farmington, Bloomfield, and Durango) will meet Tuesday in Bloomfield.  The zones in the Gallup area (Gallup, Chinle) will meet in Gallup on Wednesday, and the zones in the Flagstaff area (Flagstaff, Holbrook/Winslow, Page/Tuba City) will meet in Flagstaff on Thursday.  The James have a team of vehicle inspectors who check all the missionary vehicles out in the parking lot while the missionaries are inside being taught by Pres. and Sister Batt and the APS.

 

Tuesday:  It was a quiet day in the office with Elder and Sister James gone to zone conference and no missionaries coming in for whatever reason (usually to check the mail).  Sister James has a substantial hearing loss that is getting worse so when she is there we try to really tone things down so she can hear the phone calls that come in to her (as if we are both loud and boisterous characters!).  One day she had Elder James ask me to turn my music down (which was already WAY down) so I don’t even use my ipod/dock when she is there any more because it causes static and confusion for her with her hearing aids.  So Tuesday was “Turn up the music day!”  for us (my collection of orchestrated church hymns).  Elder Hunt worked on the week’s  Key Indicator reort.

            We took Maren with us to Chile’s for dinner – the food was good, but the place was CHILLY!  I was supposed to have a NO-CARB meal (pre-PET scan orders), so had steak with broccoli and instead of a baked potato I had grilled fajita veggies. 

 

Wednesday:  I was scheduled to be at the San Juan Regional Medical Center at 8:45 am for my PET Scan.  After the scan I went over to the Oncology Center for a blood draw.  I wasn’t supposed to eat before my PET Scan so we went to IHOP afterwards to reward ourselves for being good, compliant customers.  Their strawberry crepes were as tasty as their menu said they would be and Elder Hunt’s nuts/grain pancakes with hot apple/cinnamon compote was really yummy.  We will have to go back there again!

 

Thursday:  Our plan was to head out early on a little road trip to the south, but Elder Hunt had a bad night and wasn’t feeling well in the morning.  George came over and gave him a blessing and he started perking right away.  We had an appointment to meet with Brother Hooee in Zuni to look at a place that can house missionaries the first week in February.  Presently, our missionaries who service that area live in Ramah, which is about a 30 mile commute one way.  We left Farmington  about 11 am and our first stop was Sheep Springs.  The couple who had been living in the trailer there next to the chapel left in November and President Batt wants to put elders in that trailer.  We took two new twin beds with us to trade them out – but to our surprise we found twin beds already in the trailer.  The trailer appeared to be in tip-top shape and eagerly waiting for someone to come live there.

     Our next stop was Zuni, which is on the Zuni reservation.  Zuni is just what its name implies, a historic Zuni village with many curio shops and trading posts.  Next to the chapel there is a little bakery that is owned and operated by a member of the Zuni branch.  They mix their bread by hand and bake it in an outdoor clay oven.  We bought a loaf of fresh bread and being still warm, it tasted really good.  The label said the ingredients were white flour, lard, yeast, and salt.  Ummmmm! They make turn-overs on Friday each week and our next trip to Zuni is on Friday, Feb. 1. Brother Hooee said he will try to have his place ready by then.

     Our next stop was in Gallup to visit with the Slades who are helping us find a place for elders in Ft. Wingate.  Brother Slade grew up in Holbrook and is three years older than Elder Hunt.  We got there while Sister Slade was preparing supper, so they invited us to stay and join them.  We had a delightful visit.  They invited us to stay and watch the BYU football game with them, but we declined the invitation so we could be home before the snow began to fly.  We got home about 10 pm.

 

Friday:  We woke up to snow and freezing cold with the wind blowing.    It was good to have five baptisms to enter and a couple of referrals to take care of.  During the afternoon a couple of Farmington elders came in saying their dishes, silverware, and pots and pans were really bad.  We took them at their word so went to the AP garage and picked out some decent dishes & silverware & mixing bowls, then went to Walmart to get some cooking pans for them.  It was about 5 when we went by the library so stopped to see if Maren wanted a ride home.  From the library we went to the missionaries’ place which is in the basement of a members’ home.  I was the first one headed down the icy steps, holding on to the handrail for dear life.  About five steps from the bottom I slipped and went down, still holding the rail.  I whacked my right shin and right elbow pretty hard, but picked myself up and went inside to deliver our goods.  (As John Hancock would say, “No good deed goes unpunished!”)  We dropped Maren off at her place and came straight home – I cranked my bed warmer up to HI and had Elder Hunt bring me an ice pack and I was down for the count.

 

Saturday:  I spent a good part of the day with my right leg propped up. At noon we went with Maren to lunch at Cruzan’s, a little Mexican food place that someone gave her a gift certificate for at Christmas.  The food was good and so was the company.  After Elder Hunt brought me home and got me tucked in, he went out to purchase a snow shovel for the mission office and also a little fold-up shovel to remove ice from stairs.  He then went to remove that slippery ice from those slippery stairs.

            For Christmas Joanne gave George a note saying that it was for a week’s vacation to an undisclosed destination (we were never told where that was to be!).  This is their week to that place and Joanne’s sister Sandy will stay with the boys.  We hope it’s not in a place where the winter storms are hitting this week.  We have really had a siege of cold weather since Christmas.   I’m extremely grateful for a warm coat, gloves, scarf, and hand warmers. 

 

I’m extremely grateful for the warmth that the gospel brings into our homes and our lives.

 

During Jared's organ lesson today he showed us the pictures his mom had sent him today from Hawaii.  Joanne is picking a pineapple at the Dole plantation and George is sitting in the driver seat of a yellow Corvette convertible.  It is 75 degrees there!  We went over to visit with "Aunt Sandy" (Joanne's sister) this evening.  She will be here until Friday when she drives the Payne's car to Albuquerque to catch her flight back to Texas shortly after George and Joanne fly in from Hawaii.  That Joanne is quite a planner!!!

     We loved calling Holly on her 12th birthday yesterday.  Her birthday wish was to be able to go to the temple for the first time to do baptisms. Duane and Lari and Stacey went with her made helped to make that wish come true.  Don't we all love that Holly girl!

NMFM Week 42: December 30 – January 5, 2013

Dear Family, We are thankful that it is Sunday -- we are fasting for each of our family members today with special needs and that pretty much includes ALL of you!, We have seen miracles in our own lives and know that there are miracles available to all of God's children (and we hope that our own family will be recipients of a few of them!).  I haven't been able to attach my journal for the week so will copy and paste.  We send our love, Elder and Sister Hunt

 Sunday:  We went to Kirtland 3^rd Ward meetings again so we could visit with the Yazzie family and set up an appointment to meet with them, which we did.  It was the 5^th Sunday and the combined meeting was pretty interesting.  Bishop Warner had planned to show the Priesthood/Relief Society + YMYW how to access the internet to use the Church’s website for the new lessons that will be used in 2013.  As anyone might have predicted, the system didn’t cooperate with him – but I thought he handled it very well and made the point that when you use technology, it can throw you a curve so it is always good to have a back-up plan, which he did.
     At 4:00 we met Jared at their building and spent some time at the organ with him.  He is working on “How Firm a Foundation” since I told him that it is Elder Hunt’s favorite hymn. He is also working on “God of Our Fathers Whose Almighty Hand,” which is a bit tricky to play well.  We worked it out so he plays the fanfare with his left hand on the top manual that sounds like trumpets, then jumps down to the lower manual for the audience accompaniment. He is sounding really good.  As we were finishing, we noticed Bishop Payne sitting on the back row enjoying the concert so Jared offered to drive him home.   
     Megan and Maren joined us for dinner with the Paynes and Bishop Payne was even there for the first time since tithing settlement began. It was an enjoyable time for all of us.
 Monday:  It snowed during the night and the roads were icy, so we stayed home and worked on projects until noon.  We still had the Silverado parked in the Payne’s yard from our trip to Durango on Saturday.  Elder Hunt repaired a broken drawer for the Farmington sisters and then we took some things to Good Will before going to the mission office.  We took care of office chores until 5:00 and then called Maren to see if they had big plans for New Year’s Eve.  She invited us to come by for bean burritos so we took her up on the invitation.  Dinner was tasty and the company was delightful!   After we got back to our apartment we went to bed early and slept soundly until after midnight when the neighborhood fireworks started.  We were hoping that Daisy was penned up so she didn’t jump the Hunt’s fence again when the Mesa fireworks got going full steam.
 Tuesday:  It was nice to sleep in until 7:00 and have a lazy breakfast.  After we both got a haircut and shower we went to the office.  The APs were there working on Zone Leader Training + Zone Conference materials.  We are able to help them with their project and also purchased some dry erase pens for the laminated charts they made for each companionship.  While we were in Staples I talked Elder Hunt into purchasing the last little desk they had which was a close-out and ended up costing us only $30.   The other office staff folks took the day off to celebrate the New Year so we pretty much had the office to ourselves with the APs.  President Batt came in at 5:00 just as we were leaving to begin interviews with the Zone Leaders.
 Wednesday:  It was Zone Leader council day at the mission home so we scurried around pulling things together to send back with them to their areas:  a new cell phone & shower curtain for Pinon, new DVD player for Tuba City, ironing board for Teec Nos Pos, cups and ironing board for the Durango sisters, etc. etc.  We always enjoy Zone Leader days as we get to visit with the elders we don’t see very often.  We especially enjoy visiting with the elders who serve in the Joseph City area.  We stopped by Maren’s apt while running errands to tell Megan “hello!”  Elder Hunt had been wanting to get some ideas from her about “data mining” the 80 page CellularOne phone bills that he has been pouring through each month to get data to give to Pres. Batt regarding phone usage.  Megan was able to give him some good ideas.  She does data mining for Zulilly, the company she works for.  We enjoyed dinner with Maren and Megan at Applebee’s (we got an Applebee gift card for Christmas) and had a fun evening visiting with them.
 Thursday:   Elder Hunt spent most of the day at the AP house repairing furniture etc. that needed some attention.  We will soon be needing those extra chest of drawers and vacuum cleaners.  I worked hard to get baptism and referral tasks caught up and taken care of
 Friday:  At noon we went to the LDS bookstore to pick up some materials for the Yazzie family that we had an appointment with at 4:00.  We got an Ensign, Friend, Home Evening Manual, & Gospel Art  book.  The Yazzie folks graciously accepted the things we took to them and expressed their willingness to try holding a home evening.  They live across the river near the new casino in NHA housing.  We are glad that we gave ourselves plenty of time to find their house since we hadn’t been in that area before and we were also grateful for a 4:00 appointment when there was still sunlight to help us see where we were going.
      On our way home we stopped at the Thai restaurant for dinner.  We enjoyed the Thai cuisine  and even topped it off with coconut ice cream! We were glad to get a text from Maren saying that she and Megan had made it safely to Pagosa Springs without seeing any wildlife on the road!  They were staying at the resort where the hot springs are their big attraction and close to the slopes for snowboarding.
 Saturday:   Carole Miller’s funeral was today.  She was a dear friend and my faithful visiting teacher for the past few years.  We would have loved to be there with their family, but pressing  duties kept us in Farmington.  Elder Hunt was finally able to get all of the car parts needed to repair the front end of our car that was damaged from our encounter with a deer near Durango a couple of weeks ago.  Repair jobs like this always take longer than you anticipate.  I’ve spent the day keeping warm inside and catching up on chores.
 We are thankful for the love and support of our family that we have received during our mission.  One of our New Year’s goals is to go full steam until March 12 – we are going to FINISH STRONG as missionaries in the New Mexico Farmington Mission!

NMFM Week 41: December 23-29, 2012

Dear Family, It was good to hear from all of you during the past week.  Christmas 2012 was REALLY good!  We are looking forward to a New Year and its growth and learning opportunities.  We woke up to more snow this morning.  I hope our Arizona car behaves itself well in snow today. We love you and pray for each of you daily.  We send our love, Elder and Sister Hunt

Sunday:  We attended sacrament meeting in Kirtland 5^th Ward so we could enjoy their special Christmas program with music from their ward choir and also the Primary children with their bells.  It was a NICE program.  We hustled over to Kirtland 3^rd Ward building so we could meet the Yazzie family that Bishop Warner asked us to work with. They arrived early so we did have a chance to visit briefly with them and then I got to sit with Sister Yazzie during Relief Society.

            President and Sister Batt came by with a loaf of bread to wish us a Merry Christmas.  I was in bed still trying to recover from a bad headache, but got up to visit with them. They sure are good people!  Dinner (fresh homemade potato soup) and visit with the Paynes was a welcome treat.

Monday:  We put in a regular office Monday and went home early when it started snowing (3:30) and made Sugar Smackies. We were delighted that Kit’s calendar arrived for Christmas and also the “ordaments” that were sent from Payson. We had a Mexican Christmas Eve dinner at George’s home with all of the other Paynes in the area (there were 20 of us there).  After dinner we had a family home evening program with the Christmas story acted out by Lauana’s grandkids and narration read by their parents.  Maren also told the story of the origin of “Silent Night” and then played it on her guitar and invited us to sing along.  It was a special evening for all of us.

Tuesday:  Christmas morning was different for us since we had both decided that the church books we had purchased earlier in the month would be our Christmas to each other.  There were only a couple of gifts under the tree  so it didn’t take us long to go through that ritual.  Elder Hunt went to the computer and started fiddling around and then called to me and said that my Christmas present came as an email.  It was a tender experience to open “The Small Plates” sent from members of our family and to read of their personal experiences and feelings of their hearts.  What a precious and cherished gift!

     Jimmy and Sandra invited all the Paynes (same crew) to Christmas Day dinner at their home in Kirtland.  They served a wonderful prime rib/roasted turkey breast meal with all of the trimmings.  The Paynes are such fun people to hang out with!

Wednesday:   Back in the office with baptisms and referrals to enter and also phone issues for Elder Hunt to resolve.  During the afternoon we went shopping for a clothes dryer and chest of drawers.  We got home at 7 pm just as snow began to fall.

Thursday:  I took pictures of all of the senior couples at our Zone Conference in Polacca on December 12 and since I had a little free time, I worked on making a picture collage for my “Senior Friends” board in our office cubicle.  Some of the faces in the pictures are pretty funny – I’m glad there is a cute one of Elder and Sister Hunt and not a ridiculous one!

      We went to our favorite Maytag store and picked up a dryer to take to the Teec Nos Pos elders, loaded it into the Silverado and then parked it in the Payne’s yard for the night.  We also mailed some new pots & pans to the Crystal elders.

Friday:  We were on the road to Teec Nos Pos (30 miles west of Shiprock on the road to Kayenta) before 8:00 am.  We got to visit briefly with the Mays, the new senior couple who are on a six month mission and just brought their little travel trailer to Teec last month.. They were headed to Shiprock to a funeral for a relative of the Teec Branch President so we didn’t chat very long with them.  Elders Nelson and Bast were happy to get a dryer that works.  Elder Bast considers himself to be a mechanic so he helped install the dryer while I helped Elder Nelson scrub their microwave and stove and kitchen area.  We felt good that we left the Teec place BTIW!  After we got back to Farmington we spent some time getting our load in order for our Durango trip the following day.

     We thought of Cherise and our family all day and evening as it was her day to go to the temple for the first time.  We were thankful for Maria’s called about 9:30pm on their way back to Payson giving us a brief accounting of the evening.  She said she sat by my mom during the session and other members of our family who were there included Kirsten, Allyson, Duane & Lari, John (Alysson was sick), and of course Darren & Shirley. It was a special family time and we are so thankful that many of our family were there together.

Saturday:  Elder Hunt watches the weather report every day and since snow was in the forecast for next Monday in Durango, we decided to take our load up and help the sisters there move into the new apartment that we had gone to see the week before.  Fortunately for us, the Durango elders were available to come help us so we had three trucks to haul things to the new place.  Both the old and new place was up a flight of stairs, so it was especially good that those two elders pitched in like a couple of farm hands to do the lifting and moving.  Elders Sanchez and Davis had an appointment in Cortez and weren’t able to join us for lunch, but we took the sisters to The Dough Factory, a nice little sandwich shop.  Sisters Tuddenham and Pielstick had an appointment to keep so we went back to the old apartment and did a bit of tidying up (including scrubbing the stove and oven—something we have had a lot of practice doing the past few months!).  Our goal was to be on the road back to Farmington by 4:30 so we wouldn’t have a repeat of the previous week (we hit a deer just out of Durango!).  We made it back to Farmington by 5:30 and were thankful to be back safely.

      Megan’s flight from Seattle  arrived around 6:00 (after a few delays in Denver) and they came over to visit us after they stopped at Sí Señor for a bite to eat.  .  It sure was good to see Meg again!

It has been a busy week and we were glad for that so we wouldn’t get homesick during the holidays.  It has been a good Christmas and we really didn’t miss some of our usual Christmas “busyness” – baking, making, etc.  All of our Christmas shopping was for our missionaries (beds, pans, portable DVD players, etc.) and it was really fun.  One day as I was driving by Alco in Kirtland after giving organ lessons at the stake center, I decided to stop and just go in and look around.  After going up and down a couple of aisles the thought entered my head, “Linda, you don’t even need to be here!” so I walked out the door and felt happy.