We received this great letter from Garrett on Sunday night - he was a lot more gracious about answering a few of our questions than when he first entered the MTC ! (A little more humility seems to be involved now). :) So at least now we have a better idea about his daily schedule, the area, and what he's eating.
The last paragraph in this letter refers to a young man that Garrett went to high school with, who recently passed away after his second battle with cancer. (He was diagnosed with AML leukemia five days after receiving his mission call to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana mission last fall.) They weren't the closest of friends, but obviously Tanner made a great and lasting impression. Garrett always spoke very highly of him.
Ni Sa Bula Vinaka!
How are all of you?
So this is how my day goes, ha-ha: Wake up at 6:30 (we wake up to the sound of about 10 roosters crowing away, ha-ha), and I very slowly put on my sneakers, and then go on a little jog to start off the day. Come back, lift weights and stuff for a little while, and then eat. Breakfast is usually six pieces of toast and a mug of hot cocoa kind of stuff (the bread here is super good and costs about 70 cents for a loaf made fresh every morning, so we go over after the run and get a hot loaf every other day). Also who would've thought that I would drink hot cocoa here, but that is where it is at.
8:00 Personal study
9:00 Companionship study
10:00 Language study
11:00 Lunch
12:00 Go out for the day
Our schedule is super-packed so we have lessons the rest of the day with investigators, less-actives, and recent converts. Lessons are 45 minutes and we usually have one an hour so when we’re walking to our next appointment we usually contact as many people as possible (side note: we usually walk around 10 miles a day). Our schedule is so full that we usually just have to say can we schedule for 2 weeks down the road. It’s crazy.
7:00’ish - We usually have a dinner appointment every night, a lot of families make American food even though we ask them not to (ha-ha). But if they don't we usually eat curry, with some dalo or cassava, and everyone here drinks TANG! They all say… “You want some Juicy?”. It's pretty funny.
8:00 - We either have another appointment or just stop by a person’s house that we are teaching to give a spiritual thought.
9:00 - Arrive at the flat, plan for the next day and write in my journal. Then it’s time to pull out the foam mats, lay them in the living room with the fan and a mosquito coil, and then hit the hay.
That’s the “normal day” around here, but the funny thing is that it is never normal at all. Every lesson we get some interesting situation and every person we make contact with has a different personality and belief. I love the people of Fiji! They are all very humble because they are so poor, but they don't even know that - so they are all so happy. We get yelled at from the top of a hill or end of a street, people saying “BULA VINAKA” or “MOCE”, it’s so sweet.
There are about a million stray dogs roaming the streets, just packs of wild stray dogs that take over most of the inner cities and villages. They are nasty, ha-ha. Another crazy thing about Fiji is all of the cars. There are a lot of taxis and buses that go about 80 miles an hour on streets that are so skinny I would drive 5 miles an hour on them! There are no pedestrian laws, so if there is a gap in traffic you just run across the street because they won't stop for you, ha-ha.
I'm stoked for Nate, Bridger, Bronson, Isaac, Dalton, and Jackson…also everyone who will serve because it is such an important decision. And I love ALL of my family and friends.
Anyways….. Tanner Smith. He was such a strong young man with such high, strong standards that nothing Satan could do would ever pull him down. I think Heavenly Father knew that and realized how strong of a person Tanner was, and he needed him for a greater purpose than anything he could do here on earth. The reason he was on earth was to strengthen anyone who knew him and that is exactly what he did. Nobody could ever say a bad thing about Tanner because there wasn’t anything bad about him. He only wanted to serve his Heavenly Father and follow his Brother Jesus and he did that in such a way that everyone noticed. And as for the Church, it was only strengthened because of him. His whole life he was a missionary just by his actions and his charity towards others. I know he really wanted to serve a mission for Heavenly Father and one thing he might not have realized is that is exactly what he did his whole life. He has strengthened more testimonies and brought more people to Christ than I could ever even hope to. I love him because of his example.
Moce Mada,
Elder Garrett Hanke
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FOOD DICTIONARY:
Dalo – taro is an herb of the Pacific islands grown throughout the tropics for its edible root and in temperate areas as an ornamental for its large glossy leaves
Cassava is a shrubby, tropical, perennial plant that requires a minimum temperature of 80 degrees F to grow. The plant grows tall, sometimes reaching 15 feet, with leaves varying in shape and size. The edible parts are the tuberous root and leaves. Cassava root is used similarly to potatoes in the U.S., but it is also commonly associated with tapioca (dried and ground into tapioca flour).
Yummy!!
