Monday, May 30, 2011

Serving in Paradise....

Bula Vinaka from the Island Paradise!

The main reason this is paradise is because the people here are so sweet. I'll be walking down the street and just hear someone yell, “Bula!” to us from a freakin’ 100 hundred yards away, then they will throw their arm in the air and wave to you until you’re out of sight. That happens all day long, it’s so sweet.

So we had a baptism yesterday with a little girl named Nere, she is super sweet, and we also had one baptism the week before with a guy named Bose. It is so amazing to see the changes people make in their lives to follow Jesus’ example and become better people. It is also really hard when people you come to love don't accept the gospel, especially when you know that they know it is true, but everyone has their agency.
  
Time here is already starting to just slip away. I feel like I just barely left this internet café, and then I realize a whole week has already passed by, and it just blows my mind.

So ..... very sorry about the short e-mail, I was trying to upload some pictures but this Fijian computer doesn't really want to work with me, and now we’re out of time. So long ‘til next week.

Peace and Blessings, I love you all!

Sota Tale,

Elder Garrett Hanke

Monday, May 23, 2011

A day in the life of Elder Hanke...

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

**************

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!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Letters and packages going to Fiji...

I've just updated Elder Hanke's mailing address for letters and packages...MTC address is gone; Fiji address is now posted.

If anyone sends him a package, please make note of the following information that we received from his Mission President:

Please be aware of some mailing issues that will help you be successful in sending your missionary his highly-valued packages.  First of all, we have excellent dairy products, plenty of ingredients for pancakes, syrup, canned soup, ramen noodles, cookies, plenty of cold cereal, oatmeal, cake mixes and cans of frosting. Delicious vegatables and fruits are in abundance. So packages from family or friends need to be special items, not basic foods.

Packages will be opened at time of arrival by Fijian Customs Officers for inspection and a fee will be charged based on the contents. Attention needs to be given to the following areas:

  1. Please do not send any of the following products because they will be confiscated AND your missionary will be charged a fee:
    • Any meat products, including jerky, chicken noodles, ramen;
    • Any dairy products, including noodles with milk and/or cheese products.
  2. For small amounts of food or supplies, the charge is minimal.
  3. High priced items (such as cameras) will be charged very high duties. If you choose to send these items, please enclose a copy of the receipt for Customs.
  4. Multiple articles of one kind of clothing (such as ties) may be confused as items for resale. Limit these types of items, and always remove the sales tags.
  5. The package label should be a generral description, such as "missionary supplies", "confections", or "missionary gifts".
The mission maintains an excellent relationship with the Fiji Government Customs Department by adhering to regulations. Please help us maintain this relationsip by not sending or trying to hide any banned items in packages.

So....just writin' it like I see it, and it sounds like the Customs Department in Fiji is pretty strict.  I will try to get more information about this from our good friends (the awesome Fisher Family) whose son Brayden returned from the Fiji Suva Mission one week before Garrett got his call.  Just keep in mind that Garrett would probably cherish emails and letters more than anything else, and they don't have to be inspected or confiscated by Customs. :)

Thanks to everyone for your love and support of Elder Hanke, we are so grateful for all of you.

~Nova

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Awesome email from Fiji...

Just a quick update, since I didn't get anything posted last week.  We got to talk to Garrett during his layover at the L.A. airport (on Saturday, May 7th).  All I can really say is that it was so awesome to talk to him!  He sounded really great - so excited to be headed to Fiji, but yet sad to leave the MTC and the many great friends that he made while he was there.  He mentioned that the best part about the MTC was to have been companions with Elder Greer (his last companion before he left).  He called just as we were sitting down to eat dinner with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sue, so Kyndra asked him to say the blessing on the food, which he proceeded to do in rapid-fire Fijian.  It was so cool!  We then received a quick email on Sunday night (May 8th) to say that he was safe and sound in Fiji and not to worry. So - he probably unpacked on his first P-Day, and maybe slept a little to make up for the jet lag and 11 hour flight from L.A. to Fiji (i.e., no real P-Day email to post).

So anyway, his P-Days are now on Mondays, so we will probably always receive his emails on Sundays (18+ hour time difference).  So here you go - his first full-on "in the field" email from Suva, Fiji:

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka,

What’s up?

First week in Fiji…ha, ha…so sweet!  It’s unbelievable, if only you all could see what I see every day now. My first area is the Suva First Ward, which is like mostly city, but there is definitely some GHETTO.  Which means tin shacks in the jungle-ish area, so it’s awesome. 

My companion is Elder Duncan who is from Orem, Utah.  He is pretty cool, and he is really obedient and works hard, which is just what I wanted.  So there are only the two of us in this area, which is surprising to me, because there are so many people here.  So one of our goals is to just get a bunch of new investigators, which he hasn’t really done since he’s been here.  So on Thursday when we were out walking we went past so many people and he wouldn’t say anything at all, so I started talking to as many people as possible which would make him stop.  So we found four people who said they want us to come and visit them!  Then the same thing happened on Friday and Saturday.  My goal is to show President Ostler that there should be more missionaries in this area, and I’m gonna do that by having so many people who want to be taught that there’s no way that only my companion and I could do it on our own.  So then he’ll have to send more missionaries here.  This should be a way good area and I’m gonna make it that way, hopefully.

So we have like seven investigators that we’re teaching right now and they all have baptism dates, so I think I will be baptizing like three of them, which is so awesome.  People here are so accepting of our message and what we have to say.  I feel so blessed to be here.

My ward is too legit…the Bishop is so sweet. The Patriarch is the coach of the national basketball team.  He also has two sons playing rugby for BYU right now.  (I think I met one in the MTC.)  Also, one of the Fijian Elders I was with in the MTC, his family is here in this ward, and I got to talk to them, which was awesome.  I am so excited to be here!

So the food is mostly delicious, but some of it is just a little off, ha, ha, but I’m fine in that department.  And I’ve been prepared to wear a sulu since I was born, which is so sweet.  I’m super sore from sitting on the floor all of the time, but I’ll get used to it soon enough.  Suva is so sweet; the people are really in to new music.  So all of the buses will have like rap or something playing.  (The place I am in right now has some music playing pretty stinkin’ loud.)

Anyway, that’s about it for now.

I know this church is true and blesses the lives of the people who are willing to listen to what we have to say.

Au lomani kemudou,

Elder Garrett Hanke

(Note:  Sulu = "man skirt", and Garrett loves to wear them!)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Guess I was just kidding about the "last email from the MTC"...

We sent Garrett a Cinco de Mayo package with his favorite hot sauce, etc., which was supposed to arrive on May 5th - the actual Cinco de Mayo.  Looks like the US Postal Service wanted to let him celebrate a day early....just got this second email for the day:

The package is awesome… I've already used the Frank’s Hot Sauce for lunch and dinner.  Very clever, thank you very much.
  
I love you and will be able to e-mail you again on Friday, so talk to you then.

SOTA TALE

Your SON

Last email from the MTC...

Bula Vinaka!

How is everyone? What a day here in the good ol' MTC, this place is so sweet.
         
Time here has gone good, especially this week, even though Elder Pakileata left and that was hard. I got a new companion the same day he left and when I found out I was kinda bummed because I just wanted to take it easy til' I left. But later, when I found out who it was, I got super stoked because he is awesome. His name is Elder Greer - he is actually a little physically and mentally handicapped, but he is not letting that hold him back. Before he came on his mission he was having a really hard time deciding whether he should even come out because he has a hard time talking, but he decided to move forward with faith and he got his call to Arizona, speaking American Sign Language. He told this story in testimony meeting on Sunday and the whole congregation was teared up because of how sincere and how deep it was (I wish I could tell it like he did). He really is super smart, though. He plays piano so good and he knows how to play the guitar, too. So him learning Sign Language is coming a long really, really good, which is totally amazing. So what I'm trying to get at is that he has been a huge blessing in my life as well as our district’s.

Anyway.... Travel Plans… I leave the MTC Saturday at 1:30 in the afternoon, so that’s good.

Leave: Salt Lake 4:45 PM May 7
Arrive: Los Angeles 5:38 PM May 7
Leave: Los Angeles 11:30 PM May 7
Arrive: Nadi, Fiji 5:10 AM May 9

So that’s the plan right there. I'll call ya'll from L.A. around 6:30 so it will be 7:30 where you’re at. So that’s the plan, ha-ha.

Found out, though, if you look at my travel plans, you’ll see I arrive in Fiji on the 9th, and because I fly over the timeline I just completely skip Mother’s Day! Ha-ha, sorry Mom. That’s classic! Ha-ha.

So there it is…hopefully I remember your phone number, 232-5029.  (If not, you’d better correct me, ha-ha!)
  
SOTA TALE.

Elder Hanke