From The Journal of George O. & Arlie B. Matkin
By George O. Matkin March 1989
In June 1982 we purchased our home in Mesa at 55 South Miller and during the balance of the summer we moved some furniture from Show Low and purchased the balance to furnish the home by the time we moved in the 1st of October 1982. Phil & Bill ran the office in our Show Low home and went back to Show Low the last of April, 1983. In June we closed the office and sold the office building.
In September we were asked by President Frost if we would consider a mission. We accepted and the 1st part of October we sent our papers in to Salt Lake and President Frost talked with Hartman Rector and told us that we would have our call in about two weeks, and that there was a 90% chance that it would be a foreign mission that we had asked for. On December 17, 1983 we received our call to Oklahoma, Tulsa. Needless to say we were both disappointed.
We had to report to the MTC on January 3,1984. The ten days there and at the Vault in Salt Lake were a real spiritual experience. We arrived in Oklahoma City and were immediately sent to Deritter, Louisiana, and there Larry Telford spent 3-1/2 days with us teaching us the operation of the 16 and 35 MM cameras. We returned to Midwest City, where we got an apartment after two weeks in Deritter. We spent the time until the last of May filming all over Oklahoma and there was hardly a road that we had not travelled on. We left the 1st of June and filmed in Illinois for two weeks and then went to Rochester, New York, for a weeks conference and during that time we got to see all around the Church Historical sites. Both coming and going to New York we stopped at Kirtland and went thru all the historical sites there and around.
We then arrived in South West Minnesota the last week of June and filmed there until late July. We left and went back to Chicago and picked up our furniture and left for Saint Louis where we had an apartment and waited for two weeks before we got the Microfilm request off Vance Stanford's desk. We filmed in Saint Louis and Clayton until the last of September and we were then sent to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where we got an apartment. This was the only time that we had any contact with the Missions we were assigned to, namely Oklahoma, Tulsa; Missouri, Saint Louis; and finally Baton Rouge. We filmed mostly in the Lake Charles, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, however there were several other cities where we filmed. We got to go to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans and then the last week of February we were released and sent home because there were no more listings in that area for us to film.
During the time we were out we filmed 542 rolls, and over 698,000 exposures. The Archives records in Baton Rouge was the most interesting as we got to film old colonial records from 1640 to 1760. The edges of most were eaten away with bugs and mold.
We arrived back home in early March 1985 and came to Mesa where Darlene & family had lived in our home while we were gone. In April, again we went back to Show Low and we bought the Trailer in Fairway Park and I spent most of my time- fixing it up while Arlie spent her time extracting names at the Genealogical Library. Before- returning to Mesa in October we let Ronald have the home and we moved our furniture to Fairway Park however we did not live there until we returned to Show Low in April of 1986. In 1982 & 83 we made several trips to California and went to Mexico Yucatan for 3 weeks and to Moscow, Idaho for Bev's graduation and then back down thru the Redwoods of Oregon and California. We spent a week at San Clemente in 1986, the first time we used our time share unit.
In November and December 1986 we spent 21 days in New Zealand and 4 days in Sydney, Australia. This was a real interesting trip. In November 1987 we went to Porta Vallarta, Mexico and the Rich's went with us. He was the only student at Utah State University 1938 - 1942 that I could not beat in any of the classes. We got acquainted in 1986 when the came to the Mesa Temple on a mission, they were from Logan, Utah the home of Utah State University.
Between us we did over 1,200 Temple Sessions during 1982 - 1983 We would get in on the early 5:00 am Sealing session. In 1985 - 1986 we did over 700 sessions. Arlie continued and in 1987 she had 306 and 1988, 153.
While we were on our mission we got to see a lot of the country as we traveled in 23 states and Canada, and traveled over 23,000 miles. Rochester, New York; Saint Louis with the Gateway Arch, and Louisiana with all the old Plantation Homes, were the most interesting.
In Fairway Park we made some lasting friendships with neighbors and started a horse shoe congregation. Some evenings we would have up to 10 neighbors in the competition.
In March of 1988 CharIene and family came from Lewiston, Utah and Lyle and family from Corona, California came and visited for several days and we had a lovely time. We had talked several times of going to Catalina Island off California and so on April 6 we went to California and Lyle was working and we took Carol and family and went to Catalina. Carol was the only one that got sick on the rough ride on the boat back. We stayed at Lyle's Friday night and early Saturday we drove back home, the 9th. On the Monday following we went shopping at the Fiesta Mall and Arlie picked up a blouse she had a neighbor make and that evening we went out to eat and returned home about 7:00 P.M. on the 11th. We went our in back on the patio and it was ideal weather and Arlie reminisced about how she had enjoyed Char's and Lyle's visit and how beautiful the yard was with all the roses. We came in about 8:00 P.M. and got us a drink and went in and just turned on the T.V. to watch an old Richard Widmark movie. She was sitting about 18 inches from me and I heard a couple of light moans and looked over at her and knew immediately what had happened. She was at the hospital with in 15 minutes and with the C.A.T. scan the doctors could tell that the stroke had taken the entire left side of her brain. She left us at 11:30 A.M. on April 13, 1988.
Arlie enjoyed her family very much and liked to travel to see them. She went to Seattle a few times after Bev moved there by Airplane.
If ever there was a perfect woman it was Arlie. During the 18-1/2 years we were together we had no more than a dozen harsh words at each other and she was always ready to travel with me and we had several wonderful trips. She would never under any circumstances lower her standards. She was always busy, wither knitting or studying the scriptures. She made several hundred snowflakes which she gave away and as far south as New Zealand.