8-14 Nov 2020 Job Description Includes: Tossing a Piano

 

Sunday, November 8^th.  We stopped by Annie Stewart’s house after church. She was not well.  On the phone, she said she had felt poorly since her 94^th birthday on Thursday.  It sounds as if a family member may have given her a present she did not want.  We only could wave at her from the front porch.  She hardly moved her head while sitting in her chair.  Dee Marche didn’t feel that well either.  Health challenges are a big deal.  RaDene and I have been blessed since being out on our mission.  As we say, we haven’t been sick since we left our grandkids at home.  Rather humorously, a companionship in Lake St Louis was having a mysterious problem with their phones, unable to reliably pick up their voice messages.  After coaching some of her trouble shooting tricks without success, Sis Hatfield finally reached out to her AT&T technical representative assigned to the Mission (and thousands of other phones).  She and he have become pretty good professional friends, which I suppose is an indication of how often Sis Hatfield calls him.  She has even bothered him on his Hawaiian vacation.  After explaining the missionaries’ trouble with their voice mail, and clearly after a long day, the AT&T man said with exasperation, “I don’t know what the problem is, have them go to a an AT&T store.”  They joked that if there is a problem out there to experience, missionaries will discover it, when no one else will.

Monday, November 10^th marks the beginning of the week before transfers.  It is the start of a busy two weeks while we prepare and execute on the movement of 50+ missionaries, including 27 incoming next week.  Its preparation day for the young missionaries, and I’ve promised some elders in Waterloo, Illinois that I will address their washer, which is no longer spinning.  Waterloo is south and across the Mississippi in a rural but growing part of the state, about 50 minutes from St Louis.  We take the mission pickup truck out there, verify the problem, unhook it, and carry it down the stairs and strap it in.  Its too late to get to the appliance repair shop before it closes, so I stopped at Lowes, Home Depot, and Menard’s on the trek back looking for a certain u-shaped florescent light bulb used in our office.  We have about four of them burned out.  I have no success finding them, and resort to ordering them on Amazon when back in the office.  Its getting harder and harder to justify shopping for things in stores.  We also stop at the sisters apartment in Webster Grove, who have complained about a window water leak and that their smoke alarm goes off every time they use the oven.  I’ve worked on this apartment alarm too many times, and this time I decide to just moving it out of the hallway into the bedroom.  Yes, it will be frightening if it ever goes off, but maybe out of the way of furnace and kitchen air, it will stop going off.  That night, we have family home evening with the Evertons, another couple in the office, and the Nehrings, a couple we know from the Pagedale Branch.  Bro Nehring is the temple recorder and a great student of the gospel.  We watched an episode of the Chosen about Nicodemus, and then discussed what we know about him and his interactions with the Lord.  It is fun to speculate about his experiences and how he might have felt.  In this fallen world, it is almost unimaginable to me what Christ’s earthly relationships would have been like.

Tuesday, November 10^th RaDene began scheduling video interviews for the 27 incoming missionaries with Pres Bell and Sis Everton.  It has turned out to be a real chore.  Some are giving farewell addresses during one of the chosen blocks of time, and others have MTC teachers that refuse to excuse missionaries from class for 10 minutes to speak to their mission presidents.  That is more than a little ironic to me.  Sis Hatfield is frustrated and wants to speak with one of the recalcitrant teachers directly, but I told her to let it go, and just let Pres Bell know.  For the second day in a row, we pick up a balky appliance, this time a dryer that is not working for the Hazelwood sisters.  Mike, the proprietor at Dellwood Washer and Dryer is getting to know us pretty well.  But I am so happy I have his services to help.  Later that night, I get an email that the maintenance ticket for the window leak at the Webster Grove sister’s apartment is now closed, the work being done.  That is unbelievable.  I was there yesterday, and saw many square feet of walls and ceilings in two different rooms badly damaged by the water.  Repairs are certainly not done.  I get to work emailing pictures of the mess to the manager directly.  Meanwhile, RaDene is collecting departing missionary testimonies, missionary pictures, and other items for the mission newsletter, The Harvester.  It is a huge task every six weeks, because it is never the same and needs new formatting and content every time.  But we leave the office by 10 pm, which is pretty good for this transfer preparation week. 

On Wednesday, November 11^th I get a call that another dryer is not heating, this time in Missouri River South.  We are off to check it out and ultimately pick it up, and stop at the Weldon Spring apartment on the way back because I need to make a renewal decision regarding this property.  I’ve made a couple of mistakes this past summer renewing without inspecting an apartment, a mistake I don’t want to make again and which I can’t blame on being just too busy like I legitimately could a month or two ago.  After chuckling with Mike the appliance repairman that we “will see you tomorrow,”  ha, ha, we head to the sisters apartment in Eureka, Missouri.  I’ve had it on my work list for months to remove and discard the terribly broken piano that sits against a wall in their apartment.  This is the day I procrastinate no longer.  The housing assistants and I struggle to get it out the door and down the stairs and into the truck.  Behind the piano is the cold air return which looks like it is a grey wolf pelt it is so clogged with matted dust and dirt hanging on the louvers.  After scrapping off a pile, I look around for the vacuum and it turns into a vacuum cleaning project.  I’ve seen overused vacuums so many times over the past 11 months that by now I’m pretty good at cleaning out vacuum filters and roller brushes.  Whew.  We slowly dismantle parts of the piano and leave them in dumpsters, but the heavy sound board is still strung and intact, and I decide to just leave it in the pickup, hoping someone will steal it and solve my disposal problem.  The President has a preliminary chart of missionary transfers which RaDene and I studied until late that night building the outlines of the tasks that will get the transfer successfully done next week. 

Thursday, November 12^th.  This afternoon, the housing assistants and I finally disposed of what’s left of the piano.  We’ve pried off pieces and discarded them along the way, but today we backed up to a dumpster and gave a heave ho to the sound board box.  I hope the garbage truck can still pick up the dumpster.  Good riddance.  That project has taken altogether too much thought and effort.  Then we went to the mission’s rented storage unit and organized.  It was pretty clean after some effort this summer, but the last few weeks have been crazy with member donations.  They seem to come in waves and stuff has been piled in helter skelter.  And we have another donation to get and we need room.  We’ve picked up three used couches in recent days, and although they are not beautiful, they are in great shape compared to some of what is out there in the mission.  Sis Hatfield and I hatched a plan to get them out.  We invited the missionaries to text us a picture if they though they had the couch most in need of replacing.  My phone was “blowing up” all afternoon with entries.  We chose the worst three and took replacements out to them.  I gave a little preference to the distant areas because they are necessarily neglected a bit compared to the greater St Louis area apartments.  We also retrieved and delivered the two dryers that were in the shop.  I think I could go to work for RC Willey home delivery when I get home. 

Back in the office, I worked on a lease renewal for the Decatur, Illinois elders.  The apartment complex has become a stickler for background checks and personal documentation.  One elder has lost his social security card, which they demanded a copy of.  On explanation, in lieu of a copy, they want documentation that the elder has applied for a replacement Social Security card.  The replacement process is a red tape nightmare and difficult for anyone, but nearly impossible for a missionary out in the field 2.5 hours from the mission office.  First, the Social Security Administration requires an online account and all sorts of documentation themselves.  It is so hard to apply away from home and without access to the internet and a computer, and showing proof of application is even more difficult.  The missionaries do not have printers!  I am not sure why this manager has gotten so difficult.  We have tried to provide an FBI background report that references the SSN (obtained as part of a foreign visa application process) and a US passport instead.  They have rejected this information.  They are trying my patience.  Think about it.  What can a SS card show that is not shown better in an FBI background check referencing the SSN, a driver’s license, and a passport!  Meanwhile, Sis Hatfield is spending long hours on the mission newsletter.  The huge numbers of comings and goings require updated picture searches, formatting, and departing testimony collection and editing.  Whew!  She also is trying to schedule incoming missionary interviews and video introductions for Pres Bell and Sis Everton (mission nurse).  Making things unusually difficult, a number of the missionaries have told Sis Hatfield that their online MTC teachers will not excuse them for any video meetings with their mission president.  Sis Hatfield is ready to call the Executive Director of the Missionary Department on behalf of Pres Bell.  I suggest she let it go rather than put the missionaries in a difficult position.  But it sure is hard to receive lots of missionaries, meet them, give them interviews, feed them, overnight them, all while maintaining social distance, when the MTC policy, while undoubtedly grounded in principle, is inflexible to the environment we are operating in.  If the MTC only knew the stress in the field!

Friday, November 13^th began with something like a nighmare for RaDene.  Well, for her it was a restless, sleepless night anyway.  She has tried to table the office move discussions that she is involved in until after transfers.  Sis Hatfield does not have time to work on office move issues in the week leading up to transfers.  But although our landlord and the Church real estate department when dormant on the idea for months, they have suddenly re-energized, days before our second largest transfer in the history of the mission.  She would love to be able to take everyone’s thoughts and develop them, and give Pres Bell some recommendations.  Naturally, the biggest question is whether we will be better off moving or not from a office efficiency perspective.  And no one knows without layouts.  The Church employees don’t seem to be able to help with some simple layouts without turning it into a temple architecture type of effort, which we cannot provide sufficient time and detail to accomplish.  She is vacillating between having her layout kit sent from home or buying a basic software.  Hopefully she can push off all of this, except for some staff discussions to calm fears and manage expectations, until a calmer day the end of next week.

In staff meeting, RaDene gave a beautiful, heartfelt spiritual thought on the big picture of the staff’s office work, and the process for making moving decisions.  We spent the next two hours planning how to transport, feed, overnight, and train 25 departing missionaries and 27 arriving missionaries over the next five days on many different flight schedules.  The logistics are overwhelming, and made nearly impossible by the new St Louis County health orders to socially distance and limit private groups to 10.  The welcome dinner, sadly to me at least, won’t be at the mission home, but spread out in the gym at a church building.  Maybe no one else will care, but it doesn’t seem to nurture the nostalgic feelings I developed in my mission home for my mission president and his wife as I started my young missionary service.  Later that afternoon, I took a break from my mission assignments and helped minister to Annie Stewart.  I bought cleaning supplies and disinfectants and dropped them off at her porch for her great-grandson to receive.  It’s as near to a scary COVID experience as we have had, and it is pretty sobering, for sure.  Meanwhile, Sis Hatfield is trying to carry out Pres Bell’s plan to kick off the Light the World missionary campaign early next week by getting Christmas pass along cards printed.  The art work has come from Salt Lake, but there are no actual cards.  We are expected to print them ourselves.  But the printers are telling Sis Hatfield that the electronic files are fixed and show the card cut guidelines when printed in business card format.  No one in Salt Lake seems to be able to help.  How are all the other missions doing this? 

Saturday, November 14^th begins with me trying to get confirmation from Pres Bell that we can go ahead and set up bedrooms to accommodate the planned transfers on Wednesday. But transfer decisions are still in limbo.  COVID has popped up in several areas across the mission and among two of the missionaries scheduled to fly in on Tuesday.  Quarantines are being imposed so that a number of the planned moves can’t happen.  We will do what we can.  But first, to improve the mood, I invited the housing assistants to join Sis Hatfield and I for breakfast.  Mking sour dough pancakes is one of my new favorite distractions.  We shop for bunkbeds, but the local seller says that inventory is out until at least January because of the broken supply chain.  We go to Alton to get dressers from a member that lives in an old house built for a Civil War commander 150 years ago.  It is beautiful.  It is fun to talk to an Illinois native who is an anchor to the Church here.  Finally, I start calling missionaries to alert them that we might be setting up bedrooms on Monday, assuming we have a stable plan by then.

1-7 Nov 2020 Our Own Near Tragedy

 

Sunday, November 1^st started with long-distance video Primary with Abbi and Ezra.  To our delight, their new little sister has a great chair that holds her up and steady, and she sits on the counter in the background taking it all in, watching her sibs sing, talk, and listen to their Nana and Papa.  It is a new world:  Amelia is growing up with video conference just a normal and natural part of life.  We wished Sis Annie Stewart an early birthday, because on Thursday she says she is turning 94.  She is about as spunky as can be today.  I think her biggest worry is whether she will have too many great, great grandchildren running around her house making noise on her birthday.  We went home and fed our local sister missionaries, Sis Huffaker and Sis Jarman, our family favorite hamburger soup.  A couple of summers ago we went to Alaska and as a souvenir brought home some dry sour dough starter.  For some reason, we brought it on our mission and decided to activate it.  We made biscuits with that, but they were not very good.  It was disappointing.  That evening we had a crazy family video call to celebrate our son Spencer, daughter Malory, and niece Kristen Jensen’s birthdays this week.  Sis Hatfield had set up a zoom conference and had invited everyone in the extended Hatfield Jensen family, including my Mom and Dad in St George.  To her credit, Mom bravely tried to connect, and has had success on other occasions, but this time it was just not working.  Sis Hatfield patiently trouble shot for a good 30-45 minutes trying to get a phone or desktop to connect, but with no success.  Finally, it was time to blow out candles in Provo so we FaceTimed with Mom and Dad, and held the phone up to Sis Hatfield’s monitor.  Over the multiple video relays, sometimes the display was of people, but often off the wall or floor, or maybe a shot from the waste down, or sometimes too small to see.  And of course the singing was a cacophony of voices with various electronic timing.  Afterwards, we had a good laugh that we had even tried to connect everyone.  Still, it was fun to see and hear everyone, offer birthday wishes, and have a feel for how the party went—at our own house.  We worked late into the night cooking up 15 pounds of hamburger into taco meat for Mission Leadership Conference lunch tomorrow.  It was tricky getting rid of 2 quarts of liquid fat after the frying was over.

 Monday, November 2^nd began with Mission Leadership Conference.  It’s hard to say that they are the best missionaries, but they generally are the most experienced and talented leaders.  They gather monthly for a half day or so to be taught and inspired one with another and with Pres and Sis Bell.  Our job is to bring mail and serve lunch, usually as planned by Sis Bell.  Sis Hatfield had taken various ingredients to be chopped and prepared around to the other senior missionary couples last night, and today is assembly of taco salads.  Easy, right?  I’m always amazed at how much time it takes to put on a single meal for 50+ missionaries and then clean it all up.  But we love doing it.  These are young people that thank us profusely for the smallest kindness.  It is fun to watch Sis Hatfield in her element.  She is so good at organizing the seniors, making sure we are ready to serve the rush efficiently and on time.  My job is to ladle taco meat and beans.  Don’t laugh, its not that easy!  You don’t want to have lots left over, but you need everyone to get some.  Rats, I run out of beans before the last missionaries are served, but luckily, I’m a little ahead on the meat so the last through the line get extra of that.

 That afternoon, Elder Smith and Elder Merrill and I load furniture and shop at Walmart for the St Peters Elders so that I don’t need to interfere with more preparation day than necessary tomorrow.  The housing assistants are good sports, though, often giving up all or part of their preparation day for missionary needs.  Back at the office, I am confirming that two new apartments that are late into the Church account payable system have received November rents in time to not incur late fees.  Whew, the USPS did not fail us this time.  Speaking of mail, I received a $300 bill for a large hole in the sheet rock at the bottom of some stairs from a landlord caused by roughhousing missionaries.  Yikes, I am obliged to get the bill paid and ask the missionaries for reimbursement.  It certainly was a bigger bill than I expected.  To round things out, I got a request from a missionary companionship to be reimbursed for sporting equipment (sorry!) and from another to move downstairs from other missionaries so they wouldn’t disturb downstairs neighbors with their morning exercises.  Not a bad idea—I’ll investigate the possibilities. 

 Tuesday, November 3^rd was a triumph  We moved two elders who had been either in a hotel or out of area since August into a great apartment—finally.  I know, I know, I’ve already said this, but five applications to get a place in the St Peters Ward, really?  St Peters is a happening place!  But it all is in the rear view mirror now.  I’m not looking for a new area apartment for the first time in many months.  As we settled the elders in a bit, I took some time to learn a little about them.  One of the elders comes from a polygamist family in central Utah.  His mother is an earnest spiritual seeker of truth and encouraged him to be the same.  He attended seminary and knew that the Gospel as taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the truth.  It was not easy for him to come on a mission.  His largely estranged father is not supportive.  His mother is emotionally supportive it seems, but can’t do much else.  What a fine young man.

 Back in the office, Jim Otis, a partner in the real estate business that owns our building, came into the office.  I have spoken to him briefly a couple of times now, enough to confirm that he is indeed the son of Jim Otis a first team All-American running back at Ohio State Pro Bowler for the Kansas City Chiefs and St Louis Cardinals back in the 70s.  Jim the son was himself was a letterman football player at Ohio State, and here he is, managing the building and our office lease.  I knew that Mr. Otis and Pres Bell, himself a football All-American, would enjoy meeting each other, so I introduced them.  The bigger story is that our landlord would like us to move office space across the atrium in order to be able to join our space with an adjoining office, making the integrated space larger and more attractive to a potential tenant.  Jim had quite casually floated the idea to the MSLM office staff six weeks ago.  Sis Hatfield, the expert space designer and remodeler, started sketching out how we could configure the new space, if we moved.  The Church facilities representatives both here in the area and in Salt Lake seemed pretty apathetic, but RaDene finally got them scheduled on a conference call to move things along.  Our staff motivation is that our office, although a decent size, is poorly configured and sorely in need of paint, carpet, and updated furnishings.  Our new lease says that we are entitled to paint and carpet, but I have cautioned that moving once, much less twice to allow for painting and carpeting, would be a nightmare.  I’ve moved offices enough times to know that systems take months to get back on line and work right after moving.  More, the HVAC balancing is not right in our space.  Many of the senior missionaries are cold most of the time, and there doesn’t seem to be a fix.  So moving once across the atrium into a finished space might improve things.

 Otherwise, the day seemed to be about mice.  I think they are moving indoors for the winter season.  I bet I have coached six companionships on what to do.  They all react differently.  Some seem overwhelmed by the pests.  One set of elders treat it like a safari.  I get regular pictures of their trophy captures.  I hope the mice move on from their apartment soon.  Late that day, Sis Hatfield received a flight itinerary for a missionary traveling by himself, and arriving after transfers are complete.  That won’t work.  She’s busy reworking the travel schedule to make it fit our transfer process, which doesn’t tolerate people arriving haphazardly through the week.  We were able to wish our son Spencer happy birthday, but we missed not hugging him!

 Wednesday, November 4^th.  Today I went to Alton, Illinois.  The elders there had a smoke alarm go off in the night, and following the instructions, called 911.  The firemen said that the alarm was defective.  I think that is a sound conclusion because it was the CO alarm that went off, and the apartment is all electric.  So we took them a new one.  These devices are supposed to last 10 years, but I don’t believe it!  While we were there we helped change some lights in hard-to-open ceiling fixtures and a few other odd things that take a tool they don’t have. 

 Alton is a beautiful and intriguing town.  It is located along the Mississippi River just below where the Illinois River joins the Mississippi, and just above the confluence with the Missouri River.  It has a waterfront area that looks like time forgot it for the last 50 years or more, complete with docks, silos, and railroad tracks built years ago to move the area’s grain and produce.  Above the waterfront are high limestone bluffs with rich architecture in the shops and houses and churches.  Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated in Alton in 1858 as part of their presidential campaigns.  During the Civil War, Alton was the penitentiary for up to 12,000 Confederate prisoners.  Alton also was a key Union outpost, with multiple skirmishes into the “neutral” state of Missouri, including the so called Camp Jackson Massacre of 1861 where Union forces foiled a Missouri state militia plan to raid the Union arsenal in St Louis, and killed at least 28 civilians in the process.  St Louis rioted for days afterwards, but the arsenal was successfully moved by Union forces to Alton.  US Senator Lyman Trumbull, from Alton, and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote the Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolishing slavery in Alton with other Congressional representatives. 

 Thursday, November 5^th continued our effort to catch up on housing needs before the big transfer push that comes next week, the week before transfers.  We distributed refurbished vacuums where needed, took a washer to the repair shop and installed blinds in Crystal City and in Sandy Creek, two wards/teaching areas south of St Louis where enthusiastic living has left windows bare.  Most important, Sis Hatfield and I wished our daughter Malory happy birthday.  We miss her!  One of my favorite parts of this mission is Malory helping her daughter Kennedy call Nana on the way to school a couple of times each week.  They sing nursery rhymes, discuss what letter is being taught this week, and identify what color clothes she and her little brother are wearing that day.  Precious.  It is on such calls that we learn things like, “Nana Sharon gives me clothes and toys, Nana ‘Dene gives me books.”  Its true.

 Friday, November 6^th starts with a video zone conference for a few hours, part two of the in-person zone conferences earlier in the month.  It was my “off” session, so I didn’t need to worry about presenting this time so I could just soak up the teaching of the Spirit.  Pres Bell had conducted the meeting with an unusually high amount of missionary participation, so it was heart-felt.  Afterwards, we had a staff meeting.  I gave a spiritual thought based on what I learned in Mormon 6-9 about just how trying the lives were of Mormon and his son Moroni.  Yet no less an important work than the creation of the Book of Mormon came out of all that adversity and uncertainty.  We can be assured that our modern adversity and uncertainty bound up in Pandemic, political, economic, and racial unrest, and so many other adverse forces, can still yield good works if we have faith in God’s Plan.

 We had a near tragedy this day.  While working late in the office (surprise!), my sister Terri called on Face Time, something unusual.  It only took seconds to realize why.  She was standing outside her house and showing us a fire racing up the hillside across the street from her straight towards the our and our neighbors houses.  The fire exploded every time it reached a clump of scrub oak or another tree, and it seemed for a moment that destruction was inevitable.  I could hardly believe my eyes.  Firetrucks were racing in from who knows how many firestations, it must have been most of Provo and Orem.  The storm front winds were fanning the flames and pushing the fire hard.  But somehow, the brave firefighters got into place and stopped the fire mere feet from the Roney’s house, our immediate next door neighbor.  When it was over, we could hardly sleep, staring at the ceiling from bed.  It seemed our mission had come within minutes of ending.  Had the call to the firemen come just 5 minutes later, the outcome would have been very different.  COVID hasn’t ended our mission prematurely, and wildfire hasn’t either.  Angels are helping us stay in our assignment in St Louis.

 Saturday, November 7^th was a fantastic change of pace.  We had homemade sour dough pancakes.  We haven’t had pancakes since Malory and her family were here for the Fourth of July.  Afterwards, we borrowed some currently unused mission bikes and rode around Creve Coeur Lake and across the Missouri River bridge.  The weather was delightful, so delightful in fact, that we rode too far.  Our un-calloused posteriors were sore for days.  Afterwards, we shopped for mission Christmas craft materials for the planned Sisters’ Conference and bought our own groceries.  I took some of that sour dough starter we have been feeding like a baby all week and mixed my very first batch of sour bread dough to rise for the night.  All the while, RaDene and I continued to muse on the close call of last night’s fire.  It’s hard to put that thought out of your mind quickly.

25-31 October 2020 Bells' Mended Hearts

Sunday, October 25^th smelled oh, so good.  Sis Hatfield got up early enough to make pumpkin muffins for our ministering sisters, and I snared a few for breakfast before we left for church.  I was the sacrament meeting speaker, which felt a bit odd, both because of the camera for those participating remotely, and because I was the only speaker.  I am not sure I’ve ever been the sole speaker before.  So I spoke like a high councilman, taking probably longer than people had planned.  But my topic was Christ’s Atonement, so I had a lot to say.  After dropping of muffins to Annie and Dee, we headed home to make dinner.  Sis Hatfield had felt a nudge to invite the Bell’s to our apartment for Sunday dinner.  That upped the ante on what we would make, after eating many delicious meals at the mission home prepared by Sis Bell.  But mostly, Sis Hatfield felt that in their time of great angst about Pres Bell not being able to attend their daughter Addison’s wedding, Sis Bell needed some love from someone, and other than those in the middle of the hurt, we are about all they have.  That’s an overstatement, for sure, but we felt like we could at least offer some moral support.  RaDene cooked a delicious meal, enjoyed by Pres and Sis Bell and their two boys.  I was wondering if it might be an unwelcome topic, but it wasn’t long before Sis Bell was expressing her grief and dissatisfaction with the decision that Pres Bell did not meet any exception to attend his daughter’s wedding in Utah.  I’m afraid I had to agree with her, that with all the capable priesthood in the mission, a direct flight that could get him there and back in 24 hours, the ancient policy that prohibited a mission president from attending a daughter’s single most important life event did not make sense.  We commiserated over dinner, and the discussion evoked tender and strong feelings in equal measure between Pres and Sis Bell.  I’m impressed by their open and honest and respectful communication at such a difficult time.

It wasn’t too long after the Bell’s left that they began a video fireside for the whole mission in order to share some of the messages they had been taught in the North America Central Area mission presidents conference the past three days.  I learned later that Pres Bell had invited Sis Bell to participate, but she seemed to him as if she wouldn’t, feeling too much heartache.  But at the last minute, she joined him.  He asked if she had anything to share, and she sure did.  She let her mission “children” know of their disappointment and predicament with their daughter.  I learned later that Pres Bell was dying inside, anxious that her feelings might be too raw to be shared appropriately.  But Sis Bell was amazing, sharing her hurt, and asking for prayers of strength and comfort for her family, and understanding on the part of their daughter Addi.  She had clearly been touched by the Spirit since dinner time.  At the very end of the fireside, Sis Hatfield went to take a call from her sister Tana, and the two of them worked out details for the wedding Tana would host for the Bells at the Rawson family ranch-turned event center.  Tana was so generous and supportive, offering the Bells the family event rate.  Tana had met Addi that afternoon and bonded with her while showing the ranch.  Addison was thrilled.  Which was a blessing to Sis Bell.  Later that night, Pres Bell talked to his daughter and told her that he would not be able to come.  She cried, but understood that no one felt worse than her father, and they put on brave faces as they said goodbye. 

On Monday, October 26^th we answered voice messages at the office and learned that our storage unit had been left unlocked, so I went over to fix that.  My responsibilities are mundane most of the time, but I enjoy my work.  On Monday’s, Pres Bell often comes into the office to read missionary letters.  We pulled up into the parking lot of the mission office at the same time and aw we walked in, Pres Bell related that his daughter had accepted the decision that Pres Bell would not attend his daughter’s wedding.  That was great news.  Better, Addison and her fiancé had decided that, under the circumstances, they would have a civil ceremony and reception in Utah, and the next week, a small group of parents would travel to St Louis for the sealing so Pres Bell could attend.  That was fabulous news, and a relief to all.  To hear Pres Bell describe it, the experience felt like an Abrahamic sacrificial trial.  I listened to the relating four times before the morning was over, because Pres Bell was so relieved, he could not help but share the good news with all the staff as the couples came in one by one.  And we each listened carefully each time he related the story, because we felt so much better after hearing him.

Tuesday, October 27.  Pres Bell had told me that the local Church real estate representative, Heidi Weber, had put the mission home on track for a new barbeque grill this year.  Sis Bell helped find a screaming deal on an “event sized” grill, meaning it sported eight burner racks.  It arrived in a big box, and Pres Bell asked if I could work it into me schedule to assemble it.  Today was the day.  It took a while, and when done, I had to work pretty hard to find a wall with enough space to put it.  The grill really needs its own vehicle stall.  But, it will be fun to fire it up one of these days and feed some missionaries.  Continuing with the appliance theme, I asked the housing assistants to load up the broken dryer we have had in our storage unit for a while and help me take it to our new-found repairman in Ferguson.  It would be a bit of a test run to see if the service and convenience I was hoping for would actually be available.  Sure enough, before the day was over Mike called me back and said that the dryer was fixed and available for pickup, charging me a modest amount for replacing the thermostat and cleaning out all the lint.  For lunch we stopped at Cane’s Chicken, which is so good.  We need to get that chain moving West.  Next we replaced a bedroom blind for the St Charles North sisters. 

That night I described for Sis Hatfield what I had been doing that day.  We shared a bit of disappointment that we are not able to help Spencer with our Utah rental houses that need attention, nor able to help Darryl and LaDawn with the sometimes vacation house, sometimes rental we are building together in Bear Lake.  Yet on reflection, we are very happy to share our time and talents with the Missouri St Louis Mission, and specifically, our dear young missionaries and take some of Pres Bell’s burden of looking after the needs of the missionaries.

By Thursday, October 29^th, I’ve persuaded Sis Hatfield to accompany me and the housing assistants to Rantoul, one of the outposts of the mission.  It’s a three hour plus drive from St Louis, about 20-30 minutes north of Champaign, Illinois.  It is one of those places that ended up on the chopping block when the defense department was closing scores of military bases years ago.  The empty offices, parking lots, barracks, and hangers are still there to see.  The local economy doesn’t look like it has ever recovered.  Which means that the housing stock is not expanding and what’s there is old.  That includes our elders’ apartment in Rantoul.  After describing it to Pres Bell last week, I promised him I would stay on the situation, and today was a day we could have a housing “intervention” in Rantoul.  The elders agreed that a mother’s eye would be helpful, so Sis Hatfield came along.  We still marvel at our lunch stop on the way.  The lot next to the fast food restaurant in Effingham had a billboard with a beautiful copy of a Greg Olson painting of Jesus Christ holding a lamb.  It seemed so unlikely.  Sis Hatfield and I just hope it wasn’t a bootlegged copy.  She took a picture and sent it to Kiley Olson, Greg’s daughter and business manager, a dear friend of our son, who by extension, is a friend of ours.

When we finally got there, to my surprise, the elders had worked hard since last week cleaning up things in their control.  All sorts of clutter was picked up, the floors were swept, the dishes were done, and maybe most dramatically, all the flattened cereal boxes covering two walls in the dining room were pulled down.  In some ways, it was a little disappointing to not see it again.  The shock factor last week was pretty thrilling.  But, there was plenty the elders could not do anything about, like the enormous paint and wallboard flakes on the ceiling in the bathroom, the rusty door frame and furnace register, the hole in the pantry leaking from pipes somewhere, and lots of water damaged walls on the east side of the apartment.  As it was, we cleaned out two “closets of outer darkness,” meaning they were filled with unidentified, unusable objects, and by the time we were done, had three large leaf bags full of trash, two bags of clothes for the thrift store, and a used tire and broken down grill.  The grill lid blew out of the back of the truck on our way to dispose of this stuff and we made a bit of a scene retrieving it.  Fortunately, no harm done, except to the already broken grill.  I apologize to the Rantoul Branch, whose building dumpster was filled with missionary debris today.  We did make it to Walmart to buy the elders a new shower curtain, make some needed spare keys, and a few other things, and Sis Hatfield got them (and us) some early Halloween treats.  I was happy that Sis Hatfield had helped the missionaries end the day with a better taste in their mouths.

I also had a frank, productive talk with the apartment manager, telling her about the immediate problems that needed immediate attention, and also discussing what alternatives might be possible in the best case to relocate the elders.  We’ll see how this goes.  Meanwhile, we have assessed the feelings of the elders, and they don’t seem much bothered.  Their outlook might be as some young men feel on a camping adventure, with not much expectation for facilities or cleanliness.  Bless their resilience and veiled vision.  On our way back south, Sis Hatfield persuaded us to stop by the sisters apartment in Champaign.  She couldn’t get this close without saying hello.  I don’t know how to describe it.  Sometimes you feel like the pony express bringing a small piece of mail from the civilized world to the corners of the mission on these trips.  The sisters seemed delighted, and we traded more treats.  No one really needs them, but they are symbols of our affection for fellow servants of the Lord.  Of course helped with a small thing, locating the furnace filter that had eluded them, had a meaningful prayer together, and left.  It seemed liked the old, enormous Champaign cemetery we drove by was just right for spreading the Halloween atmosphere.  Sis Hatfield wanted a picture of a creepy tree half dead and leaning over a crypt.  It was a cold, windy day, and after starting at 9:30 in the morning, we pulled in at 9 p.m. that night.  Nearly 7 hours of driving, a few of hours of apartment work, an unplanned detour, plus a couple of meal and gas breaks and you get to a 12 hour day pretty easily.

 Saturday, October 31^st.  Sis Hatfield had agreed to accompany Sis Bell for what turned out to be a full day’s shopping for missionaries.  The first objective was to find craft supplies for small Christmas trees they had ordered for a sisters conference they are planning.  Part of the conference activity is to decorate the trees, both for themselves, and for the elder companionships in the mission.  Sis Bell and Sis Hatfield sat knee to knee for a couple of hours earlier this week making plans, and having already ordered desk top trees for a fantastic price, step two was to find decorations at the craft store today.  Sis Bell said the creative thinking, focusing on frugal beauty and fun, was exhausting.  Sis Hatfield said that she calculates the decorated trees will be beautiful, and come in for about $2.50 apiece.  Now that’s an achievement.  The second objective was to shop for the lunch for mission leadership conference on Monday, which will be about 50 people.  Sis Bell and Sis Hatfield settled on taco salads, and after getting what they could at Costco, they went to Walmart to finish the shopping list.  They found checkout lines heading around the store and out the door.  It took them over an hour to get out.  Visiting with someone in line, the women believed that everyone was stocking up to be ready for the riots she feared would come on Election Tuesday next week.  Sis Hatfield helped her understand that if elected, Joe Biden wouldn’t be able to raise her property taxes, and she might want to take some interest in local elections.  Sis Hatfield gave her a pass along card, and offered to help if she could.  I can tell that the biggest success of the day was Sis Hatfield’s friendship and support of Sis Bell.  The past week has been a roller coaster for her and her family, and as a result, emotionally draining.  RaDene has been a valuable person for Sis Bell to process with several times this week, and most all day today. 

 Later that evening, Sis Hatfield and I went back to the craft store because of its 50 percent off sale and because she had spied a Christmas tree that would be perfect for the mission office.  We got full value, because Sis Hatfield also framed some art Christmas presents.  Sis Hatfield and I parceled out ingredients for Monday’s lunch to the several office couples, giving us the opportunity to stop at the Jacob’s house and talk and laugh for a while.  Notwithstanding they are almost a generation older than us, what a good friends they have become.  Finally back at home, we made one of our long family favorites, hamburger soup, to share with the sister missionaries tomorrow. 

18 – 24 October 2020 Heartache for the Bells

 Sunday, October 18^th, RaDene and I journaled on our experience helping our fellow Pagedale Branch member, Sherri Cullen prepare for the temple.  I’ve written about this before, but President Fuller of the St Louis Stake presidency called us one recent evening and asked us questions and invited us to write to him about what we had felt and learned.  It was good to revisit the temple preparation experience and organize thoughts about how the Spirit led us.  Later that evening, I fielded a call from the sisters in Webster Grove North area.  They could not get their furnace to work.  After coaching them on some basics that didn’t help, I put in a maintenance request for them to the landlord.  It will be a chilly night, and I’ll want to follow up promptly tomorrow because the fall temperatures are starting to drop. 

 On Monday, October 19^th, I received an email from Sun River Apartments in St Peters.  They were rejecting my application to lease an apartment.  That’s the fourth rejection in this one area, setting a record of difficulty securing a new apartment.  Complaining out loud about the situation, Sis Hatfield recalled that I had withdrawn my application at a place called Meadowridge apartments because they had at first indicated they would have a vacancy in early September, but just as I was about to complete the application process, told me that there wouldn’t be anything before mid-October.  In August, that seemed much too long to wait.  I suppose it was a rational decision to withdraw given what I knew then.  Looking back, maybe I was wrong, since here I am, still with no apartment.  Sis Hatfield encouraged me to contact Meadowridge and ask again.  I admit it took a bit of humble pie to swallow my pride and call them, but I did.  They say they will have something on November 3^rd, so I hustled on over with an application and a check for $250.  Just applying is expensive. 

 RaDene and I took a trunk load of mail to the mission home for Pres Bell to distribute in his out of town interviews around the mission this week.  When we arrived, he looked terrible.  He also kept his distance.  He is suffering from headaches and a brain fog.  Naturally, we are concerned that he may have contracted COVID.  He will be in our prayers.  Pres Bell also is discouraged because he will be sending a beloved missionary home early for a poor choice of action.  This is always heartbreaking.  Back at the office, while Sis Hatfield meets with the young missionary technology specialists, one companionship of elders, and one of sisters, I head to our old apartment to clean our bathrooms, kitchen, and floors.  I have become pretty expert at cleaning apartments by now.  And can I just brag a bit that the apartment RaDene and I are turning over was oh, so much easier to clean than other missionary apartments?  Ha, I have strong skills in the less weighty matters. 

 On Tuesday, October 20^th, I make arrangements to send the housing assistants to Farmington to collect the table and chairs I picked out with Sis Hatfield after zone conference last week but didn’t have room to carry.  Meanwhile, sat down in the office with the St Peters elders and helped them with the occupant information that Meadowridge apartments was requiring to do background checks.  It is nearly impossible to navigate some online forms from a phone, and literally impossible with the Church security firewalls blocking all be a very few websites, not including apartment websites, from missionary access.  But my office computer will allow us to turn the trick.  That afternoon, Elder Jacob and I conduct our monthly ritual of setting up rent payments for our now even 100 apartments around the mission.  We work hard to do this every 20^th of the month, even though rents aren’t due until the 1^st, because by the time the President approves the payments and the Church payables folks finally write checks and mail, 10 days may seem early, but it isn’t, especially with the slower than usual mail delivery of the COVID era.  Then I stop in the office of our apartment complex and turn in the keys for the apartment we have now vacated and cleaned, and turn in a punch list of items we need to have corrected in our new place, emphasizing the need for hot water in the bathroom sink and the useless wall switches in three rooms.  And then, sadly, it turns out it is my responsibility to take the young elder to the airport that the President has had to send home early.  I know this elder well so we have a comfortable and positive conversation, avoiding any discussion of his transgression, but trying to review what he has contributed to the mission and his bright future.  I help him check in and get him to security.  Then I break protocol and give him a hug as he heads on through.  I have a feeling I will see this young man again someday.

 Back at the office, Sis Hatfield has a tiger by the tail.  AT&T has stopped supporting 3G smart phones, effective today.  Somehow, the Church has not shared this development with us, so many of the phones of the mission and the missionaries are becoming useless hour by hour.  She discovers that if SIM cards are not removed, phones will not be deactivated immediately, so a standard safeguard of swapping the SIM card in the companionship phones is suspended on an emergency basis until further notice.  A missionary companionship without working phones is next to helpless in the current environment of finding and teaching through technology.  Sis Hatfield is franticly communicating with tech support and with the AT&T representative, who she has become all to familiar with, to try to figure out what can be done.

 Wednesday, October 21^st is an effort by Elder Jacob and I to modify and resubmit paperwork needed by the Church accounts payable department to pay rents on newly leased apartments.  The Church is very careful to check tax id numbers, owners, W-9s, dates and signatures, and other information so that their records of payment are impeccable.  Unfortunately, apartment managers are not nearly so careful, and even if they are, they are not accustomed to the information that the Church needs and requires to fulfil corporate payor obligations, which are more complex than exist for individual person renters.  It takes a lot of phone calls, explanations, calming assurances, and delays moving papers from one persons desk to another.  But I’m determined to not take personal checks around to all the new apartments for their second month’s rents.  (Typically, I pay the first month as a part of the application and move in process, along with application fees and security deposits, and then request reimbursement.)  We end the day doing something we rarely do:  we make a scratch dinner.  At Costco we had purchased far more mushrooms than we could use in our regular menu rotation, so Sis Hatfield has found a recipe for mushroom soup.  It is delicious, but it will take two trips to the local grocery store and lots of chopping and measuring and cooking before it is done.  But it’s worth it. 

 Thursday, October 22^nd is a travel day for me.  With the housing assistants, we are working our way through a long list of tasks in the Champaign zone that have been piling up for a couple of months now.  The COVID crush of incoming missionaries has kept me from responding to things three hours from St Louis for too long.  Our first stop is Mattoon, Illinois.  The sisters have taken my advice seriously to change furnace filters, but they for the life of them cannot figure out where it is or how to do it.  I’d promised to help.  On entering, it took about five seconds to see the problem with finding and changing the filter:  the Mattoon apartment doesn’t have a forced air furnace; it has baseboard heaters.  I can’t keep the equipment straight in 100 different units, and the sisters had searched in vain, despite my coaching.  We had a good laugh!  After everyone was in a good mood, I delicately asked the sisters to take down the two walls that were plastered with postcard sized pictures affixed with scotch tape.  The COVID boredom had led to some understandable, if poor choice of decorations.  I’m cringing a little to think about how the paint is going to look once the tape is pulled off.  But, it will only get worse as the tape’s glue dries even more, and gives future missionaries the wrong idea of what is acceptable to do to an apartment wall. 

 We continue farther north to Champaign.  Our job is to re-affix two handrails in two different apartments that the elders have managed to pull from anchors on the stair wall.  We have new hardware and a stud finder so we can resecure them.  We also work on a screen door that has been nearly torn from its hinges with a closer hanging bent and useless.  Surely the apartment maintenance folks could fix these things, but my goal is to minimize the damage the mission is charged for, and acrobatics on stair rails seems likely to be categorized as tenant abuse.  Then we head over to Mahomet, where the sister training leaders are located to deliver a working vacuum, tighten a faucet, and take down a couple of beds that are not being used.  A temporary three-some in Champaign had forced the second companionship to temporarily move to Mahomet, but the tri was over, and the 2^nd set of Champaign sisters were moving back to Champaign.  Its complicated keeping up with missionary moves.

 Its getting rather late in the afternoon, and we have a long trip home, but for some reason I have the feeling I should go to Rantoul, another 30 minutes or so north of Mahomet.  Rather doubting myself, we head up there.  The elders don’t respond to my call and text to announce our coming.  When we get there, we figure out our key doesn’t work.  The locksets have been changed.  But no matter, the apartment is not locked.  On entry, I swallow hard.  The apartment is in as bad a shape as any I’ve seen.  There is evidence of water leaks on several walls, a bucket under a drip in a closet, lights not working, a kitchen that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in days, and most striking, a bathroom that has paint literally falling off the walls, and every metal surface brown with rust.  But its clearly not just the condition of the apartment, but its upkeep.  There is cereal boxes taped with strapping tape on two walls, clothes and objects everywhere, a floor that sorely needs sweeping but can’t be touched for all the clutter, to say nothing of the dishes in the kitchen.  I can hardly imagine that I have not heard from the missionaries about the condition, and am very disappointed that I haven’t made time to inspect before now.  I left rather shocked, only fixing a couple of lights.  I never do see the missionaries on this trip, which is probably good so that I’ll have a chance to collect my thoughts and measure my words.

 On Friday, October 23^rd we head east to New Baden, Illinois.  A member there in the O’Fallon Stake is relocating to Florida and isn’t taking much furniture.  The STLs have received word that the mission is invited to take furniture.  We get beds, desks, leather couches, end tables, and a nice dresser.  I have a plan to furnish the St Peter’s elders apartment with these generous donations.  Now I need to make sure the application is accepted—by no means certain.  Back in the office, Elder Jacob and I are able to finalize the last paperwork to authorize the most recent leases to be added to our accounts payable list.  That may not sound like a victory, but we are to the end of the time for a check to be issued and received timely, and trying to pay rents outside of the payables system is unmanageable with so many leases to keep track of.

 On Saturday, October 24^th we start early.  Because of North America Central Area training, President and Sister Bell couldn’t find time for new missionary training and staff meeting this week before today.  We start early, with video training at 8 a.m.  It is a big group of about 25 missionaries at the training.  Unfortunately, with that many participants, the visual tiles were very small, so I’m not sure I got to know the missionaries any better because of the training. 

 We gather for staff meeting at 10 a.m., but something feels very odd.  The President and Sis Bell are late and not together.  Finally, Sis Bell arrives, but Pres Bell stays out in the car.  While we wait, Sis Bell finally can’t hold it in any longer.  She bursts into tears and it tumbles out that her daughter is to be engaged to be married on New Years, but after making as strong a case as they can, Pres Bell can’t get permission to attend.  I’ve never seen a mission president be able to go home to a wedding, but somehow the Bells had believed he could.  Their daughter is semi-defiant, and not altogether supportive of the sacrifices of the mission already, and Sis Bell is sure this will be the disappointment that shoves her feelings strongly away from the Church.  We learn that President Bell is sitting in the car after another unsuccessful call with the Area President and doesn’t feel like a staff meeting.  We try to carry on without him, but the elephant in the room cannot be ignored.  Sis Bell bemoans that she cannot find or afford a wedding celebration venue, with the only place of any hope being in Brigham City, much too far from their family and friends in West Haven, Utah.  Hearing the plight, Sis Hatfield offers that her sister has transformed the family ranch in Hooper, on the border with West Haven, into a country-themed event center.  Sensing some interest, and real benefit to the possibilities, Sis Hatfield gets on the phone with Tana, her sister, and checks the schedule and briefly explains the situation.  Finally, Pres Bell comes in, and we get through a couple of meeting agenda items and adjourn.  We decide we will meet on Monday, if necessary.  After people head out, I visit privately with Pres Bell, and Sis Hatfield talks with Sis Bell.  We are both trying to console and problem solve.  Our hearts are broken vicariously, as we feel the pain of the Bells.  Later, having more information, RaDene continues to communicate with Tana about what can be done.  It is looking like Sis Hatfield and Tana might just be able to help.

 Now it is late afternoon, and we have done nothing like a preparation day.  We head out for groceries.  Sis Hatfield invites the Bell family for Sunday dinner tomorrow, something we have never done before.  To my surprise, they accept, which ups the ante to pull something together.  Then we do a bit of Christmas craft shopping, and stumble on a 40% off sale that ends that very evening, and we have found exactly what we need, we think.  A small but welcome blessing.

11 - 17 October 2020 Childhood Memories of Columbia, Missiouri

Sunday, October 11^th seemed like it was going to be a bad day.  Our nonagenarian sister in the Pagedale Branch, Annie Stewart, was not at home when we stopped by after sacrament meeting.  She had been hospitalized a few days ago.  Her grandson said it had to do with headaches and chest pains, so it was probably related to her high blood pressure.  She might be released in a few days, but she did not answer when we called her hospital room.  We made sure he had our phone number.  We can’t help but worry about Annie.  Later that afternoon, another sister we visit and talk to regularly said she “needed a break” from church.  In talking to her, she does not want our relationship to change, which I am grateful to hear.  I’m thinking that she is just feeling overwhelmed with life pressures, and trying to give herself some space where ever she can.  We will stay close to her.  Better feelings were shared later that evening when Dad celebrated his 90^th birthday with the family.  Malory, AJ and their two adorable kids made a surprise trip out from Alabama to be with him.  I am so thankful for the health and strength my parents have enjoyed in their old age.  I miss not being able to celebrate with him and the rest of the family, but I know he is my biggest supporter for serving this mission.  One of his greatest qualities is faithfulness, putting the Lord first in word and deed.  

Monday, October 12^th started with a meeting with Sis Hatfield and Pres Bell.  Technology has become such an integral part of missionary work, and Sis Hatfield plays a key role for the MSLM.  It starts early, with helping missionaries bring compatible phones, to providing directions on setting up the church’s safety application, which restricts use to approved internet sites.  She has become a sharp shooter in helping missionaries use Area Book, the missionary department’s proselyting data collection app.  She spends lots of time on the phone with them, often recruiting help from missionary department technology specialists in Salt Lake City.  The mission has assigned a few young companionships to travel around the mission and train the rank and file in Facebook finding and teaching.  There is a fuzzy line between what Sis Hatfield does supporting the missionaries and the duties of the Traveling Technology Trainers.  So, we organized and coordinated efforts, making sure we understood Pres Bell’s vision of what can be done to expand the mission’s successful use of technology.  Later, I went shopping for a washer and dryer set for a new mission apartment.  After doing some research, I figured out that no one had equipment in stock.  Apparently, the reduced manufacturing of durable goods extends to large home appliances.  But, Home Depot will have something for me by the end of the month.  The elders will need to use the laundry of the apartment complex in the meantime.  Helpfully, the Home Depot appliance specialist recognized I was with a church, and helped me apply for a state tax exemption.  It will save the Church almost $90 on this purchase.  Thanks, Home Depot!  That night, Sis Hatfield and I worked until 10 p.m. getting ready for zone conferences the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, October 13 we got up early and headed the 2 ½ hours to Columbia for our first zone conference of the week, where three zones would meet each day for the next three days.  The sites of the conferences were not centralized.  Instead, they were located where the local county ordinances would permit the size of the meetings of about 80-90 people.  We did research to find that these counties would be in Columbia, Missouri, Springfield, Illinois, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, more or less the three outlying arms of the mission.  By the time it was over, we would drive between 700 and 800 miles to get around.  We were almost late in Columbia, because we had a tire pressure warning.  Ordinarily, I would not have paid much attention until I had some time, but I had pulled a screw out of the tire a few days before so I felt like I need to deal with the problem, which turned out to be a non-issue, except for making us slow to conference.  Besides presenting to the missionaries, we brought mail, and helped organize and serve Sis Bell’s cinnamon rolls and fruit outside.  It amazes me how food, no matter how carefully thought through, requires a good amount of time and effort to set up, take down, and clean.  After the zone conference, RaDene and I dropped off mail and a birthday present to Elder Kilembi and his companions, zone leaders who had to participate electronically because they had helped a family move a few days before, and unhappily, the father of the family tested positive for COVID-19.  The sister training leaders were on the same service project, and were also quarantined. 

Before heading back to St Louis, we wanted to stop for lunch, and chose a sandwich shop next to the University of Missouri campus.  As we rounded a street corner, Sis Hatfield looked up, and exclaimed, “that is where I had my EEG when I was five years old.”  She hadn’t been around Columbia long enough to know that she was indeed looking at an old wing of the U of Missouri hospital.  She had a recollection of a landmark, the Columns on the campus center, which we found and enjoyed taking a look at and reminiscing about her family’s stay there some 50 years ago while her Dad worked on his masters degree in economics.  RaDene called her Mom and together they laughed about all of the misadventures they experienced that year, from tramatic separation from friends and family, cockroaches, seizures, amputated finger, chicken pox, and more.  It is no wonder Sis Hatfield easily pronounces Missouri as Misery, given the childhood memories.

 On Wednesday, October 14^th we traveled to Springfield, Illinois.  One of the things that zone conference week brings a disruption from exercise and healthy eating routines—we are simply on the go early and long this week.  Sis Hatfield’s presentation to the missionaries was memorable, as she shared a clip of our granddaughters saying farewell to each other at the end of Dad’s 90^th birthday weekend.  Kennedy and Abbi hugged and kissed, and Kennedy said goodbye.  Abbi paused, and responded, “Never goodbye, never goodbye.  I’ll come to your house someday soon.  Never goodbye.”  It was adorable and captured the hearts of all the missionaries. 

 Thursday, October 15^th took zone conference to Cape Girardeau.  The local sister missionaries hitched a ride with us.  Sis Huffaker and Sis Jarman are such good friends to us and to each other.  Sis Huffaker started her mission in South Korea, where our son Spencer served, so we feel a certain bond with her in that regard.  It was the first rainy day of the cooler fall season, so we were not sure how we were going to serve the midmorning snack socially distanced and outside like we had been doing the past two days.  And Sis Bell called Sis Hatfield in a small panic that she had forgotten the grapes for the break and left them at the mission home.  By the time of the call, we were too far to turn around, so we dropped the sisters off at the Cape Girardeau stake center to participate in the beginning of the conference, and Sis Hatfield and I headed to a local grocery store for fruit.  There was a break in the rain, so we were able to have our food break served inside in a line and send them out the door for snacking and visiting.  It worked okay.  Sis Hatfield had the idea of having the mission sing happy birthday to my Dad, since this was his birthday.  So afterwards, the young missionaries, together with Pres and Sis Bell obliged me, and out in the parking lot, Sis Hatfield led them in a spirited happy birthday song, which RaDene posted for him and the whole family to see.  I was tickled that I could offer something special that day to him. 

 We took a detour on the way home to Farmington, where the local habitat for humanity reportedly had used kitchen tables.  We are in need of those around the mission.  Our elders in Farmington have done quite a lot of service for them, so they have sold us furniture at deep discounts before.  Its funny that in a metro area of 3.5 million people, it seems impossible to get large furniture at the local second hand outlets, so we go 150 miles south where they don’t seem to mind accepting donations of and selling large furniture items.  The funny part was when we got to Farmington, it was just a little after 4 p.m.  I called the store manager, and he had already headed for home to watch his kids while his wife went to work at her evening job.  After trying unsuccessfully to keep the trip from being a waste, the manager finally said, “I’ll just give you the door code, and you can let yourself in and see what might work for you.”  So we did, which felt strange, for sure, but inside was a treasure trove of old furniture, including kitchen tables and chairs.  We picked out a couple, called the manager, and he sold them to us at half the marked price.  We left a check on the counter, packed out one set that we needed immediately, marked the other set for future pickup, and locked the door on our way out.  I guess some people trust the missionaries.  We treated ourselves and the young sisters to St Louis-style barbeque for dinner, and headed home.  We logged 291 miles for the day.  Tomorrow will be a much needed catchup day in the office.

 Saturday, October 17^th was moving day, this time for us.  After a few false starts, we finally jumped on an upstairs apartment in the building we live in.  Sis Hatfield has observed recently that workers have been in and out of this apartment, and although the leasing office didn’t have it yet on their list to show, she persuaded them that we should be able to take a look before it had been through the ready checklist.  We have been holding our breath for some months now since our upstairs neighbors moved out.  The sewer pipes have done their jobs during this COVID summer with no one upstairs.  But now, it has been re-leased, and we knew that we are at risk again.  For peace of mind, we made the move, figuring that upstairs had to be safer.  Some sister missionaries helped move closet and cupboard stuff, and the housing assistants carried the big furniture.  Since I had given our couch away to a newly opened of elders, and since the President’s office couch was quite awkward in the space, we inherited the office couch.  I joke that every time I sit on it I feel like I’m in an interview.  Naturally, it will be a few days before we are settled, but we find we do enjoy the upstairs apartment.  Maybe that is because we have lived in our perch of a house in Provo for too many years to be ground dwellers.  During a family video call that evening, I got a frantic call from some elders in Decatur, IL that their oven “blew up.”  After troubleshooting for a few minutes, I recognize they won’t be getting the help they need for several days.  I send them to Walmart to get a hotplace burner to give them something to cook on through the weekend.

4 - 10 October 2020 You Won’t Make It to Samoa

 

4 - 10 October 2020  You Won’t Make It to Samoa

 Sunday, October 4^th was the second day of General Conference.  We enjoyed the morning session on BYUtv, figuring that we would slip over to the office between sessions to print out boarding passes for the 10 missionaries departing tomorrow.  Sis Hatfield sat at her desk and the tension began to build.  As she looked for itineraries, she found she couldn’t print boarding passes for one and then another.  Finally, in exasperation, she called the Church emergency travel service.  The agent wasn’t having any more luck.  It turned out that eight of the 10 flights for the missionaries going home had been cancelled by the airlines.  So, what had been planned as a short stay at the office between sessions turned into something very different.  Schedules were now completely upset, and missionaries and parents at home had to be called and alerted.  President Bell’s airport shuttle schedule was moved up because he now had to leave for the airport for the first flight at 4 a.m.  The previous plan to leave the mission home at 6 a.m. was a lost luxury.  And instead of taking them in two groups, the missionaries would either need to go in four groups, or be left at the airport early to bide their time.  Maybe most distressing, a sister returning to Samoa would not make it home at all.  Two days ago, flights to Samoa were cancelled for the foreseeable future.  Fortunately, Sis Fuimaono has a sister in Hawaii who will take her in.  The only other option was to stay in St Louis, which didn’t seem like a good plan.  All in all, the plans and expectations of many people were upended between conference sessions.  Sis Hatfield worked deep into the afternoon session to get things back on track.  Like we are fond of saying, everything is harder in the COVID era.

 The pleasant part of the afternoon was hosting Sis Thomas and Sis Webster for the afternoon session.  Sis Thomas, our dear friend by now, is heading home tomorrow, and coming from the Cape Girardeau zone, they would either need to drive during the afternoon session, or in the break between to be at the farewell dinner at the mission home.  Sis Hatfield invited them to come watch with us.  That was a good plan until we needed to work on travel, including my supreme contribution of putting together travel treat bags.  As it worked, I had to go home and open up our apartment for the sisters so they could watch while we worked at the office.  By 5:30, we had travel sufficiently under control so that we could go to the mission home to help collect luggage to stow in the trailer, say our goodbyes, and take last pictures.  These young people have a place in our hearts. 

 Monday, October 5^th for me was hopeful.  I took an application to a Maryland Heights apartment that seemed willing to work with the Church.  The staff was friendly and helpful, which was a breath of fresh air.  We bought some beds, shopped for kitchen wares, and electronically signed the lease for the new Pagedale apartment to be ready for move in in the morning.  We also left the office in good time today because we had planned video FHE with the grandkids.  Can’t get enough interaction with our fast growing posterity. 

 On Tuesday, October 6^th we started the day by moving in the recent second companionship of Pagedale elders into the Hawthorne School Apartments, my new favorite apartment in the mission.  Sure, the living space is great, with exposed high ceilings and rich dark oak woodwork, but Madeline, the middle aged live-in resident is a charmer.  She took pleasure in showing us the two vacant apartments in the school, one of which was the converted old boiler room, and the other of which was the adjacent coal storage room.  That may not sound very appealing, but they are both fascinating spaces.  If it wasn’t a bit of a drive to the office, I’d be tempted to take one of them for myself and Sis Hatfield.

 Wednesday, October 7^th was transfer day.  I met the housing assistants at 9:15 at the Frontenac building for the physical set up.  Then at 10 a.m. the new missionaries’ caravan arrived and we ushered them in for orientation and trainer assignments.  We start with the President giving some thoughts to the new missionaries, but then he excuses himself to the other room to “train the trainers.”  Meanwhile, Sis Hatfield conducts the staff in their orienting remarks to the new missionaries.  About an hour later, we join the trainer missionaries in the gym and watch the joyful unions.  The remove their masks and embrace as only missionary companions do—full of hope, love, and devotion, and with a full measure of anxiety at the same time.  We hustled outside to be ready to help the new missionaries and their companions with keys, luggage, pillows, phones, addresses, transportation, and other practical details.  Shortly after, the transfers of the infield missionaries begin, and we have over 100 missionaries coming and going through our transfer process.  It is a joy to interact with many. 

 This transfer, Elder Nathaniel Nelson is leaving the housing assistant assignment and is on his way to Sikeston, Missouri, and outpost of the mission.  Elder Nelson assisted with more transfers than any other young person has in the history of the mission as we swelled from 130 to over 250 missionaries.  Taking his place is Elder Smith, a young man that has been serving in the adjacent Maryland Heights area.  I look forward to making a new friend.  I start by taking him and Elder Merrill to Five Guys for a late lunch, a semi tradition for me and the housing assistants after transfers.  Afterwards, we jump back in setting up beds in Fairview Heights, Illinois, taking down a tri in Lebanon, and more set ups in San Carlos.  In all, we have missed only one companionship who is short a bed in Springfield.  I hate that, but there is nothing that can be done today.  An air mattress will have to do for this night.

 Thursday, October 8^th I send the housing assistants out on their own to set up the Springfield tri and make a few other needed stops around the Springfield zone.  Typically, I would want to go and see for myself the condition of apartments, which helps me plan for lease renewals, training, and see what should be done on a future return trip.  But this time, I can’t leave the office for the day—there is simply too much concern I have for three companionships in hotels, and one in particular where the manager is giving me signals that they don’t want to deal with the Church application any more.  I need to develop some alternative apartments.  But it hasn’t been easy at all.  What I can find is either too expensive, full, out of the area, or unwilling to deal with a corporate lease.  I’m on my third full application for the St Peters elders, and now it looks like it might fall through again.  I did take a brief break to go out to the apartment of the Hazelwood sisters to install a new dryer selection knob.  Their’s was broken, and Amazon had the replacement part.  I was also cautiously excited to find an in shop appliance repairman who says he will let me drop off broken washers and dryers for him to assess and repair for me.  That would be so much more convenient than trying to connect with traveling repairmen—the standard business model—to wait at an apartment to meet and then pay for in apartment repairs.  Frankly, that almost never works.  Interestingly, the shop is in Ferguson, Missouri, just out side of St Louis, arguably the first place where an African American was shot by a police officer in the recent wave of civil injustice and unrest. 

 I must admit that the most meaningful activity on Friday, October 9^th was watching a documentary that RaDene had come across.  It spoke to the dangers of a society, particularly a democracy—where citizens are incapable of finding truth in the maze of computer directed advertising, news stories, and personal entertainment.  Our “truth” is fast becoming what computers discern are our “likes” and feed us over and over again.  The narrow mindedness and polarizing effects are scary indeed.  But one need only look around and see the reality of the problem.  This Presidential election season has been alarming, even from the well insulated perspective of a missionary.

 Saturday, October 10^th was delightful.  We went on a long walk/jog—a “wog”—through a course RaDene has plotted out.  It was a good stress reliever.  Then went to the St Louis Botanical Garden Butterfly House, a conservatory of educational gardens, indoor and out, with lots of butterflies and other insect creatures, and their habitats.  The Butterfly House is adjacent to a large park that contains houses, cabins, barns, and other structures and artifacts from 100 to almost 200 years ago from a small settlement in the area.  We didn’t get to take a tour because we need to do our shopping, so we have reason to return.

27 September – 3 October 2020 Apartment Envy

 

On Sunday, September 27 we didn’t have Zoom Primary with Nana and Papa because Spencer and Elisa were driving their family to Arizona for a week with the Lymans.  Hopefully we can resume next week, because Nana and Papa sure like having Primary with the Grands.  At Church in our little Pagedale branch, we ended up giving our seats in the chapel to others and listening from the Foyer.  I had told the Elder’s Quorum President that if it ever looked like we would cross over county COVID meeting limitation rules (25% of room capacity), he could give me the sign and we’d be happy to help make room.  This week, I got the sign.  Let’s hope it’s the beginning of a trend of larger attendance!  After administering the sacrament to Annie Stewart, we joined the beginning of the mission presidency meeting back at the office.  We presented on JustServe, which is starting a community service promotional campaign for the rest of the year.  The two counselors in the mission presidency are taking the role of communicating with stake leaders about JustServe, while Sis Hatfield and I continue to train and encourage the young missionary leadership and the missionaries themselves.  We ended the day by hosting dinner with Elder Dayton and Elder Howard, the new companionship that has joined the Pagedale area, giving us four elders in the branch now, in addition to Sis Hatfield and me.

 Monday, September 28 started badly.  My housing coordinator email would not connect.  I spent all morning on the phone with mission technology support, and after several calls, I was finally back on line.  The tech said my computer’s Microsoft license had expired.  I was relieved to get back in the game, which primarily focused on a Pagedale apartment search for Elders Dayton and Howard.  Pagedale is a bit tricky:  the northern half of the branch is an area that most would consider somewhat to largely unsafe because of crime.  It is definitely one of the edgy parts of town.  But I have triangulated on a place called Hawthorne School Apartments, which had a manager that was very helpful and didn’t seem to be the least bothered about the Church being the renter.  I filled out the application and was cautiously optimistic. 

 Speaking of apartment searches, the family that once lived above us had abandoned the place late this spring or early summer, no doubt because of COVID related misfortunes.  Recently, it has been reoccupied.  RaDene has no desire to have a sixth sewage backup in our apartment, and now that someone has moved in upstairs from us, we are a bit nervous again.  We’ve asked a couple of times about the possibilities of alternatives, but nothing seemed to pan out.  Sis Hatfield made a new appointment with a leasing agent and he said that there was an available ground floor apartment on the other end of the building we could look at.  After looking at it, it has some deficiencies.  Recently, RaDene has noticed signs of the upstairs apartment on the other end of the building being renovated.  Obviously, an upstairs apartment offered some hope of being above any backup.  Tonight I noticed the lights were on in that upstairs apartment.  After trespassing to take a look, it seems like a very acceptable alternative.  The deck is smaller than our ground floor patio, and it isn’t obvious how we’d recreate our hanging flowers or bird feeders, but mostly, it would get us above the sewer backup zone.  The leasing agent said it wasn’t yet available.  Pressing him, RaDene learned that it should be available to take a look after a county inspection at the end of the week.  We made an appointment the first possible time to see it, the Saturday morning before General Conference.

 On Tuesday, September 29^th I left the apartment early to go scout out the neighborhood of the Hawthorne School Apartments.  It is a leap of faith or stupidity to put in an application before knowing something about the neighborhood, but I had done just that yesterday.  I felt like I needed to.  But now I needed to confirm the feeling and take a look.  Like I said, Pagedale is a bit tricky, and honestly, an abandoned but repurposed school could be a cue to neighborhood problems.  On my drive out, I was getting nervous, but as I rounded the last turn, I was in the middle of a lovely middle class neighborhood with a beautiful city park and a very handsome old building, the Hawthorne School Apartments.  I saw signs of families, diversity, and people that didn’t seem afraid to be outside.  Whew.  

 By 9:30 a.m., I met the housing assistants back at the office and storage unit to load up for a trip to the Springfield zone.  We took mail, loaner phones, tools, and materials and headed out.  I received multiple calls along the way from the manager at the Hawthorne School Apartments asking pertinent questions about my application, which I was delighted to answer.  She was taking the application seriously and giving it her attention.  We stopped a couple of hours later in Jacksonville, Illinois first, to grab an extra couch from one of the elders’ apartments potentially needed in Springfield, and then at the second Jacksonville elders’ apartment to get a spare key, and install some window coverings.  I was happy to learn that all had been quiet there since the loud middle of the night commotion reported a few weeks ago, but which never could be verified by surveillance video.  Next we were off to Springfield to deliver that just acquired couch, and then to Decatur.  The stop in Decatur was made a little more tricky by the quarantine the elders were under because of a hernia operation to happen on Friday.  Too bad they didn’t mention that before today.  Delivering the desk was easy enough, but part of the task was to take a look at a door that had a hole punched in it by rough housing.  I wasn’t going to skip this task, so I invited the quarantined elders to go for a walk while I inspected the problem.  It looked repairable, so I mixed up some patch and made the first fill.  I left some sandpaper, the mix, and a putty knife for the elders to apply a second coat tomorrow.  This may go bad not doing the work myself, but the alternative couldn’t be worse than replacing the door, which is where we are if we don’t try.  Last, we gave them the mission loaner phone.  The newly arrived elder had brought a phone that turned out to be incompatible with the Missionary Department’s security software.  This happens all the time.  The Church tries to give instructions about what models of phones and operating systems will work with required security software, but the instructions are almost incomprehensible to anyone but the most tech savvy.  And constantly evolving phones are increasingly less compatible with the security software.  Sis Hatfield is spending an enormous amount of time coaching new missionaries, and often, giving them clunker loaner phones so they can send their fast, sleek phones home per mission department rules.  Ugh.  Leaving, the Decatur sisters pulled in and delivered some homemade chocolates to the elders, and we were part beneficiaries being in the right place at the right time.  And no, sisters are not supposed to bring treats to the elders.  I caught them!

 We were now off to our last stop in Litchfield, where the sisters there had been complaining generally about the quality of their apartment and specifically about some “black stuff” in their window.  I knew the place was an older duplex, so I knew an inspection could be warranted.  I haven’t seen it closely before, except from the front porch.  It was 7 pm before we arrived, and I took a look around.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The building itself was older, but had obvious signs of ownership that pays attention.  Things were in better than average shape, except for years of “stuff” accumulated in the apartment that clearly cluttered the look and livability.  We talked about it, and then and there did a sort, and carried out boxes of junk that greatly improved the situation.  As for the “black stuff” in the window, I concluded that there was indeed some mold staining the wood window casing.  I donned my rubber gloves, got out the cleaner and hot water, dried and applied some disinfectant, and made it go away.  I cleaned the sisters’ bathtub of the beginnings of some mold while I was at it.  We had prayers and were on our way.  Mission accomplished.  I think the sisters needed some of our attention and effort, which they received, and now feel better about their apartment.  We got back to the office at 9:30 that night, a solid 12 hours after starting our circle around the Springfield zone.

 Wednesday, September 30^th started with a trip to Webster Groves North to look at a malfunctioning smoke alarm.  The sisters couldn’t figure out why it was beeping intermittently.  Since they were on quarantine, I told them a couple of days ago to just put it in their car until I could get there.  I got there, and figured out how to open the casing.  Alas, it needed a size battery I did not bring, so I raced to the Seven Eleven to buy some, then put in some anchors to reinstall.  I was in a bit of a hurry because I had an appointment in Centralia, Illinois.  The elders out there (way out there, I should say, most of the way to Indiana), had done some service and come across some furniture they thought might be of benefit to the mission.  I’m a little leery about such offers, because as often as not, donated furniture is in poor condition or the wrong sort of item (who can use an old style entertainment center?).  But I really need dressers, and the elders had sent some promising pictures.  I was a bit jaded though, because the donor had asked how much I was willing to pay, and had temporarily rebuffed my admittedly low offer while someone else took a look.  But we were back on for now.  It turned out we met the elders in Centralia, but the furniture was actually in a barn several towns and dirt roads away.  But I was pleasantly surprised by what I finally saw.  I picked 10 pieces and we secured it in the trailer.  The donor turned out to be a recently widowed member who was not at the barn because she was trying to sell a trailer to someone.  I asked to meet the member to give her the check, so off we went to the trailer, which was down a few more dirt roads.  She wasn’t there either, and now was reportedly at a place difficult to navigate a truck and trailer at all.  So, I gave the check to the elders and asked them to deliver it and have her call me.  As we were driving down the highway, she did call, and what a pleasant woman she was.  In the end, I was glad I was able to provide a small sum to a widow who needed the money, and very proud of the elders for providing service to her in her time of need, and helping fill mission needs for furniture too. 

 Thursday, October 1st.  Wait, did I just write that its October?  Yep, its official, we have been through our first Missouri summer season.  I joked with RaDene while she was in her exercise shorts that her legs are whiter than I have ever seen them at the end of a summer—ever.  She could say the same thing about me.  No danger of advancing skin cancer on a mission.  But there is no time to reflect on legs.  We are out the door to help with a Mission Leadership Council being held in the St Louis stake center.  Sis Bell has planned and prepared a lunch, but has forgot some ingredients at the mission home.  And can we bring crockpots, and what gluten free desert do we have?  Sis Hatfield caucuses with Sis Bell and pulls together the loose ends and we are off.  Our main responsibility will be to execute Sis Bell’s lunch plans.  RaDene is an excellent kitchen field marshall, organizing the staff to make it happen.  I am chief dishwasher, because there is no barbeque today.  But we also give JustServe training to the zone leaders and sister training leaders, including the Real Lives. Real Change. campaign.  I think of an MLC as a ½ day event, but I’m always optimistic about that.  Once we have the leftovers put away and the pots clean and the floor mopped, we are deep into the afternoon.  We head back to the office to find some large deliveries having shown up while we were gone.  I dash back to the stake center while Sis Hatfield calls some missionaries to wait.  It is too good an opportunity to get some of these things out to missionaries driving long distances back to their teaching areas.  That evening in the office, Sis Hatfield spends more hours with the phone contractor and finally says she cannot afford any more time on this project until after transfers next week.  We will line up the new phones like soldiers on the counter.  No one seems to be able to make even these new phones work.  We turn our attention to the mission news letter and the draft of the transfer board.  There is much to do before the 19 new missionaries arrive next week. 

 Friday, October 2^nd shows more progress on the transfer board, with two new teaching areas and 9 missionary trios.  I head over to University City, part of the Pagedale Branch, and get to see the inside of the Hawthorne School Apartments.  They exceed my expectations.  The early 20^th Century four story stone building must have been an impressive school when it opened, but its bones outlived current school standards.  But the setting is beautiful, surrounded by lawns and a city park, stately oaks, and a old circle drive.  The neighborhood seems diverse and friendly.  Inside, the developer turned the architect loose and he divided the school into 41 unique apartments, preserving the hallways, stonework, thick hardwood paneling and high arched windows.  The apartment I’m trying to rent looks like part of a former classroom, with handsome windows that must be 15 feet tall, bathing the space in light.  The walls are covered in part with old painted chalk boards.  And to go with the charm, the bathroom and kitchen is 100 percent new construction within the old classroom space.  I’m taken with the place.  I wish I could live here myself. 

 After lunch, I meet up with the housing assistants who have had zone council all morning.  We head out to the apartment of the Hazelwood sisters, who tell me that their can opener no longer works to start their dryer.  Hmm.  When we examine things, we see that the timer switch has fallen back into the control panel and the knob that turns the switch is cracked.  We take the panel apart and reattach the timer, but the knob is not fixable.  I leave some pliers so they can turn the dryer control without a can opener.  I will check to see if I can order a replacement knob.  Of course, they get a complimentary cleaning under their clothes dryer.  That’s just the way we roll.  As we leave, we see an oversized dumpster in the apartment complex.  It is just the perfect spot to discard a couch that even missionaries can’t use any longer.  Back at the office, its late, but Sis Hatfield is still plugging away at the mission newsletter, trying to fit pictures of arriving missionaries, and looking for updated pictures of departing missionaries (they change a lot in two years at this age!) and edit and fit their written testimonies.  It is a labor of love that these young people will enjoy, but I don’t think they’ll ever fully appreciate the work that went into the project.  Isn’t that typical of service in the Kingdom? 

 Saturday, October 3^rd is General Conference.  We’ve looked forward to this day for a long time.  We are so uplifted by the testimonies and instruction of our leaders.  The Prophet is unbelievably spry and sharp.  After the morning session, which we watch on BYUtv in our apartment, we head to the office.  I’m looking for hotels and Sis Hatfield is working on departing missionary paperwork.  It isn’t our plan, but we work through the afternoon session, listening to the talks as best we can while doing our mission work that has clear deadlines.  Blessedly, RaDene has made a plan to get together with the Jacobs and the Evertons for dinner out between the afternoon session and the Women’s session.  We are an unlikely trio of couples, by worldly measures.  We don’t match up in many ways.  But in the most important way, we are exactly aligned:  we love the Lord and His missionaries, and are honored to be serving them.  RaDene and I then go to the Jacobs for pie and to watch the evening session at their house.  As a bonus, Sis Hatfield gets to watch from the full body massage chair.