July 30th, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey, whats new with all of you??  I thought Missionaries where suppose to get letters from their family?   We visit the Saturday River Market whenever we can, and always find new things to buy and eat. This week I saw boxes and boxes of these long, purplish pods and asked what they were. Purple Hull Beans; so I bought some to shell myself and try them out.  They taste sort of like a black eyed pea.  The seller said to boil them up with a bit of bacon grease, so that's what we did! The machine below is a sheller they had set up for those who wanted to buy them ready to go.

And, while we are speaking of food, we finally found a place to buy some Boiled Peanuts!  They were hot and salty, and so yummy!  We were at a gas station about 75 min. from our apartment and saw the sign and decided to get some.  They were cooking in a large crock pot (unlike the ones we bought years ago from the roadside, boiling in a large witch's type pot) on a small table inside.  Next to the pots was a damp towel and books laying one it, one of them a Book of Mormon.  Sister Sorensen and I looked inside and on the inside cover we could see that the book was from Ivon Faulkner who is the First Counselor to our Mission President!  We thought that was pretty neat.  Pres. Faulkner lives another 75 min. East from where we were.  It had been raining that day, so someone had laid their books out to dry.

These two lovely Sisters were on exchanges, and were staying at one of the Sisters place. She lives in a small house.  On this particular night, they had gotten in around 8:00 and were discussing their day and planning for the next.  They hadn't locked their door, and as they sat there, someone tried to open the door.  One Sister jumped up and locked the door.  They were super scared, but nothing more happened.  They called their Zone Leaders and ended up driving to another area for the night.  Through their prayers, they have not felt good about returning to this house to stay, so they have been moved out of the area and guess they will put some hefty Elders in there. Before this decision was made, Elder Hess and Elder Hartzell had gone to a Good Will store and bought two baseball bats, some pepper spray and a small brace/lock for their door.  Sister Gray, the one with the gray T-shirt said that was all that she needed, a big baseball bat!  Can you read her funny shirt?? "NOT TODAY SATAN, Not Today! Sister Gray was best friends with Gabby Barnes before her mission, and is from MacCammon, ID.  It is so important that missionaries keep the Spirit with them at all times and for all reasons.  Likewise, we need to keep Heavenly Father's Spirit with us, at all times, and for all reasons.  A quote from Preach My Gospel: "The principle of accountability is fundamental in God's eternal plan. We will all stand before the Lord at the last judgment and give an accounting for what we have done with the opportunities He has given us."  Pres. Monson adds, "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates."

We drove to this beautiful park a while ago with the Sorensen's.  So many lakes and forests to explore, but we still should stay on the paved paths!!! More about that later.  We decided to rent a paddle boat for an hour, and wondered if that would be enough time to look around.  The Elders started out paddling, but that didn't last long!! We switched places and had a lovely 30 minutes before Sister Sorensen said, "Time to go Back".  Guess none of us are in very good shape!

 Such great beauty all around us!  Part of these pictures are from a place called Garvin Gardens, another place we visited on this same trip.

 It rained on and off that day, and luckily the real down pour came before we got out of the car.  This garden is one you pay to get in and encompasses  many many acres.  Some areas were planted with species from different regions of the world, and one particular  part was all done on a fairy scale!

  

Well, you get the idea, and I even took more pictures!  It was funny to see the fairy chapel and then the Devils Snuff Box.  Always there is that Good verses evil conflict.  Someone just lately reminded us of the quote that Pres. McKay saw on his mission: "Where er'e thou art, Act Well thy part."  And, 3 Nephi 27:27, "....Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am."

 We pass this church every time we drive to the Mission Office, and the billboard  always has something catchy written on it.  One of the youth in our ward spoke last week about attending Youth Conf. She said that she hadn't wanted to attended, but she was encouraged to go and she was so glad that she had.  These are her words, " when a group of LDS youth enter a room together, the Spirit echoes through the room.  They are all trying to get to the same place, they have the same goals, the same fights (struggles) and youth conference for me has been a refresher for my soul."

Our Office Elders!  They drove from Memphis early one morning and brought the office a treat!  These are such good missionaries, and are always helping us out. They run all of the errands, transport others for medical apts. deliver furniture, buy supplies, go to the dump, fix vacuums, buy new washer and dryers, just to name a few things!  When it comes time to close an apartment, they box things up, clean it up, and bring us any media that has been stashed there, and I mean sometimes the stash borders on hoarding! This is a portion of what they brought back from just one apartment!!!

Now, the rest of the story from the walk we went on when we were at the lake. Mon morning Elder Hess woke up with a few bites on his legs, no big deal. Tues, more bites, and Wed., even more bites!  We counted them and found over 30. I circled them with a black marker and his skin looked like it was dotted with sliced black olives.... We thought we had better count them to see if he had more new ones the next day.  I had like three bites, and we were so afraid that they were bed bugs, ugh!!! We called our Bed Bug Elder and asked his advice, sending him pictures of those skinny legs, Elders Hess', not mine. He thought that they might be bed bugs, although there was no itching with them.  We started the horrendous bed bug protocol outlined by Elder Thompson.  First you wash everything and then dry it twice on high heat; bag and seal it all up. Whatever you can't wash or dry on high, you bag and seal and stuff it in your car to heat up there.  You wipe down your bed frame, baseboards, dressers, and check every crack, crevice and seam in every piece of furniture, mattress and box springs.  Luckily we have special sealed bags on our box springs and mattresses to protect them.  Wipe everything down with pine sol.  Clean and de-clutter as you go.  Out went quite a few things, and counters were cleared and all food stored away.  We had even gotten up one night with flashlights to check the bed for any of those creatures, actually got up twice that night. Sat. morning after everything was loaded in the car, we turned off the AC and I sprayed the special stuff around the apartment.  We drove to the river market for a few hours while things dried.  Then we got to come home and put it ALL away!  So much fun.  In the middle of the week I had asked the O.Elders to drop off the special spay at the apartment; on a day when E. H. stayed home.  We were so embarrassed to admit that we may have B.Bs!  I finally told Sister Sorensen what our fears were, and she stuck out her leg and said, "You mean like these bites?  Elder Sorensen came out of his office, pulled down his sock and asked, "you mean like these bites?"  What a relief to know that we were not alone.  Now we were suspecting that we all had the same thing, and not B.Bs!  But, we had already begun the protocol, so we continued on to the bitter end.  Well, not quite to the bitter end, if it had actually been B.Bs, there would have been a period of time we would not let anyone come to our apartment, be very social, and we would have completely emptied our apartment. (not partial like we did, although we couldn't have fit much more in our car)

Can you believe the size of these hydrangea blossoms! This is one of our favorite Sisters, Sis Povey from Randolph, UT.  

Well, it's late and we have a busy, busy week with transfers.  Sis. Sorensen and I have made our usual 7-10 dozen treats for the missionaries who will be spending most of the day at the church where the mission office is.  They will be waiting for their new companions and also for existing companions to return from the temple trip in the morning.  On Tues we have 22 new ones arriving, and that means dinners and training to help with.  They come with such light in their countenances, and wonderful Spirits about them.  Today in Sacrament meeting one speaker reminded us that "The Spirit is the only way we can come to know Christ." John 16:13 ..."He will guide you into all truth..."

We leave our love and blessings with you.

Elder and Sister Hess

                                                                                                          July 14th, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,
How are all of you?  Sure would like to hear from you now and then....It's been a crazy couple of weeks with Pres. Wakolo leaving and President Hansen arriving.

          This Crepe myrtle tree comes in multiple colors, and they are everywhere, so beautiful!

President and Sister Hansen arrive at the Mission Office.  They are such good people, very prepared to take reins of the ALRM mission, and so down to earth and personable!  We love them already! We all had Larry's Pizza together that day, and Pres. didn't leave until he had placed a Book of Mormon and invited some young family to have the missionaries stop by their home.

And, Look at that!  Sister Hansen and I are the same height!

 This picture doesn't do justice to the myriad of flags that one church can display!  People here have a love for the flag and display it proudly.  Today on an outing, I saw a very large sign that read, "Welcome to God's Country. Proud to be an America, Proud to be a Christian!  Wish that I could have caught the rest of it before we sped by. Signs with scriptures, thoughts and mention of God on them are frequent here in the South.  You see the 10 Commandments posted on public grounds, something unheard of in other states. July 4th our ward hosted a Flag raising ceremony, pancake breakfast, and then a flag retirement/burning of the well used and loved flags. I had never witnessed one before, and it was a respectful, reverent event as we tossed in the stars and stripes we were each holding.

 After closing the office late afternoon, the Seniors hosted a dinner for Pres/Sister Hansen and the missionaries from our area.  Here the Elders show off their $ Store socks and glasses.  Elder Maskovich, Jennings and Hall.

 At 9:00 pm we hurried off to find some fireworks, and did have a good view from the Walmart parking lot of the Sherwood display.  It was a good 4th of July, but we did miss being at the rodeo and getting those swellings in our chest as Old Glory flies around the arena from horse back.
One Sat. Elder Hess and I visited the AR Historical Museum.  This small city block in the middle of Little Rock is home to some original homes and businesses from the mid-1800's.  This was a store/print shop. Like the Corn husk broom?? What a hard way to keep your floors clean!

Pieces of 8 set out at the old "Grog Shop"

As usual, the grounds were filled with flower gardens and a beautiful vegetable garden by one of the homes.  We saw what must be the largest magnolia tree every!!

 Later that day we walked across one of the many bridges (an old railway bridge) that cross the Arkansas river, and snapped a shot of some details of the river.

 

Free Trolley rides during the summer.....and it takes you through the River Market district of Little Rock, over one of the bridges into North Little Rock, and includes a narration from the conductor pointing out the highlights and history of the city.  Gus's famous fried chicken was recommended, so the following Sat. we made it our afternoon destination.

Gary finally got his fried chicken!  Later we found out that we could have order "Chicken and Waffles", a southern treat, or so we have heard!  Special here included 4 pieces of spicy chicken, Cole slaw, beans and a slice of bread.  I slipped off to the Farmers market while we waited for the food, and had to be careful not to buy more than I could carry back to Gus's!  One of the vendors just knew that he was giving me a great bargain on peaches, $10 for 10 Alberta peaches.!!  We sure did enjoy the fresh peach pie we made later in the week though...  

President and Sister Hansen were eager to meet all of the missionaries so they had a Meet the President in five different areas.  Last week he held a special Leadership training for the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Sister Zone Leaders.  We provided a nice lunch for them, and at the top of Pres. list was Root Beer Floats!  His whole career had been with Darigold in Washington State, so dairy is at the top of his must have on the menu.  The missionaries loved them! In some of the Pres. instructions, he reminded us that in life, and as disciples of Jesus Christ, "We may need to let go of some things to have the time for what is most important, our relationship and knowledge of our Savior, and 2nd our family relations should top the list."  He talked about the need to purify our self as a sure way to have the spirit with us. We do this by making prayer a priority, and realize the need to prepare to pray.  He likes to sing a hymn in his mind before his prayers, and to also ask what to pray for.  "Prepare to approach the throne of God in prayer".  "Immerse ourselves in the scriptures, all the answers that we need can be found there." Third was service. "Be 100% in! Don't bench ourselves through laziness and ease.  and last, be obedient, completely  - because we want to be, not because we have to be." President left us with a wonderful group blessing, promising us many things if we would be "completely in". 

 If you can't tell, I LOVE taking pictures of all the varieties of flowers here in AR.  I sometimes think that seeds from the Garden of Eden must have blown outside of the garden and planted themselves here for us to enjoy.

 Don't know what everyone else is paying for gas, but we are happy with the price here!

Sounds like Breakfast at our house when the kids were all small, Elder Hess always wanted his Corn-meal mush OR his Cream of Wheat, which would have been frowned upon during the war.  

And, when considering  - "Leave nothing on your plate, how would be feel about eating this?

Whoops, picture is upside down, but how about some "Chicken Paws" for Sunday dinner???  Many times we have driven passed this church, and have wondered about it...

And, since we know that This Church is true, it can't be that That Church is true. "Therefore, go ye into all the world; and unto whatsoever place ye cannot go ye shall send, that the testimony may go from you unto all the world unto every creature." D&C 84:62  It is our duty as Disciples of Jesus Christ that we open our mouth and share the "Good News". "Open your mouths and they shall be filled," D&C 33:8 "For there are many yet on the earth...who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it...." D&C 123:12 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face,, I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." D&C 84:88

Go ahead, stick your neck out there and invite someone to attend church with you.  Invite them over for dinner, and have a meaningful conversation.  Who knows, maybe that person has been waiting their whole life to be invited, to be included, to be shown where to find truth and light.  Share with others the peace and serenity that comes from having those basic questions answered. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going.

We love you all,

Elder and Sister Hess

                                                          June 29th, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,  

Thought we better share some of these photos, they are piling up!  It has been a very eventful three weeks and lots of good things are happening! I wish I had a better photo of this tree, it has several names, and the blossoms like like feather fans.  Of course the trees that are completely covered with blossoms are those we see when we are driving by... Mimosa or Persian silk tree.  

One of the small Farmers Markets that we visit helps to fund an old orphanage that I think I have already mentioned.  One Sat the building was open for tours, and we spent at least an hour

wandering through the rooms, halls and chapel, wondering what the walls would say if they could.

The old linoleum floors remind me of what our kitchen looked like when I was growing up.  

 Elder Hess has something to confess.....

 Beautiful chapel with it's stained glass windows!

St Joseph, Father of Orphans, and Foster Father of Jesus

 Have any old pallets laying around?  And, this is for all of us WY gardeners!

 Elder Hess and I drove to Memphis the night before our Zone Conference in TN, we had to be there at 8:30 am.  Elder Hess did a power point presentation on medical needs, and I had to "inspect" all of the Sisters for dress standards.  I was glad not to have the Elders, they had to lift their arms, let Sister Wakolo inspect their collars, cuffs, pits, shoes and pants.  At the hotel we stayed at, they suggested 2 restaurants, and one was Marlowe's Ribs, and they offer free rides in one of their two old pink Cadillacs.  After we had eaten, we noticed the sign above our heads, and funny thing, it was established the same year we were married. :)We were within 5 miles of Mississippi, so we drove far enough to be in that state.

Thoughts from Zone Conf.  "A Bad attitude is like a flat tire, your'e not going anywhere until you change it."!  Pres. Benson said, when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power." "Charity brings the Spirit and helps us connect with others."

Pres. Wakolo had so many good things to say, but one was pretty impressive.  He shared with us that 10 days after his sister had passed away in Fiji, his family finally let him know.  Rather than be upset over this trial, he made up his mind right then that from now on his "trials would become his learning experiences, and his weaknesses his strengthens. "
 S.Povey,Wheeler,Gummow,Minster, and Gray The long and short of the mission!
Sister Wakolo always does a game with the missionaries, and one this time was asking what Pres. one-liners were.  Here are a few...I rejoice with you in the gospel of Jesus Christ, I will never doubt or question my testimony, I am grateful for my eternal companion, she is the 1st counselor to the Holy Ghost, Life is good, This is the plan of Happiness, not the plan of Sadness, and A step away from the world is a step closer to Jesus Christ."  One of Pres. stories - When he was an Area Authority, he did a lot of traveling and when he would return home, it was always with a suitcase full of dirty laundry.  At one point, it hit him that he wanted to return home Clean!  So, after that, he always made sure that his laundry was done before returning, he wanted to return home Clean. At times he would have to start laundry after midnight on a Sunday night, but he did it, just to return home, Clean.  Seniors and visitors at Zone Conference.

Last Zone Conference for Pres and Sister Wakolo and Jasmin.  Jasmin is almost 14, and bore her testimony.  She serves as companion at the mission home and airport when there is only one sister going home.  The Wakolos are headed home to Fiji for three weeks, not to rest, but to do Firesides, Sacrament meetings, visit many of the widows and elderly, and hopefully reconnect with family.  Their 20 year son Glen lives there and they haven't seen him for 30 months.  They will make their new home in Sandy, UT, not the sandy beaches of Fiji as they had thought. Pres., now Elder, will begin his 21 year assignment as a 70.

 Drew and Savannah Stephens, newlyweds neighbors, both in the military, Drew living here in AR, and Savannah in Mississippi until they can get an assignment together.  We have given them each a Book of Mormon.  They are a great couple.

One of the many farmers markets that we like to visit.  Fresh peaches, plums, beans, and even corn this last week.  Oh, and beautiful heirloom tomatoes, varieties of potatoes, and lots of squash!

 We say good bye to some, and see you later to others.  Sister Burk on the right transfers, Elder Ray center flies home to Ammon, ID Elder Jacquez transfers, and tall Elder Kuchin below, home to UT.  Elder Taleni, one of our AP's goes home to Samoa.

 We met the Sister's new investigator, Pam Hutcherson a week ago Sunday.  We saw her and her grandson come into Sacrament meeting looking for a place to sit.  We caught her eye and they sat with us.  Boy, talk about a connection!  She had had one discussion with the Sisters, and felt the Spirit so strongly, that she was NOT going to let anything stop her from attending church that day!  Obstacles were thrown in her path that morning, but she persevered.  The Sisters leaned up and asked us to help her with any questions, or concerns we could see that she may have.  Her grandson didn't look like he felt very well, so I helped him lay down on the bench and covered him with my sweater.  After the Sacrament, Elder Hess got a blanket from the car.  (yes, our church can be very chilly, even in the summer) The first speaker talked about families, perfect talk for the what Pam needed to hear, and then the Sisters sang the most beautiful hymn, page 327, to the tune of Come Thou Fount.  They hummed a verse, sang the words, and then hummed again, all acapella!  It was extremely touching, and long before the end of it, Pam was sobbing!  Those tears didn't stop for the next hour.  We hugged, emptied my purse of Kleenex, and waited for meeting to end so we could talk.  Pam has attended "hundreds" of churches, and had given up on finding what she was looking for.  She told Heavenly Father that she was through, and that she needed Him to send her the right church.  And, you know the rest of the story, the Sisters knocked on her door!  There's so much more to the story, but that's for another time.

During June we had a great deal of rain, more than usual the locals tell us.  Of course this photo doesn't do justice to the beautiful rainbow.  One evening the Sorensen's took us to one of their favorite places to walk in Burns Park.  It is at an old stone quarry site, and remnants of the past industry remain.  As night drew near, we had our first chance to see the magical fireflies!  People here call then lightening bugs.  Part of our walk took us past the flooded Arkansas river, and I happened to catch the sun sitting on the far side.  I hope you enjoy this photo, it is one of my favorite! Mount Pinnacle can be seen in the distance.

This was Happy Father's Day to Elder Hess!  We had a great day, and LOVED all of the special phone calls from family.  We keep you all in our prayers, and thank Heavenly Father for each of you.  One last thing about Pres. Wakolo.  When he interviews departing missionaries, he always asks them, "who will Mom see when you return home?"  Who will she see in 2 months, in 6 months, etc.?  Will she see a converted disciple of Jesus Christ?"
That is our prayer for each of us when we return home, we will all be converted disciples of Jesus Christ. 3 Nephi 5:13

love to all,
Elder and Sister Hess