Finally catching up from the holidays and taking some time to post our interactions with Elder Hanke from the last couple of weeks. The “sequence of events” is detailed below, and might I add, it was beyond GREAT to get to talk with Garrett... it was AWESOME!
Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season! Ours was definitely different, but that's what makes them memorable, right?
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19TH:
Kyndra and I were at Kneaders having some dinner when we got the first email from Garrett (below). He really threw us off!
From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:00 PM
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:00 PM
Nova quick i need the last 4 digits of my social security number so i can activate this skype deal
I will only tell you that # if you tell me how you’re really doing! Ha ha ha…..
From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:07 PM
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:07 PM
Give me your phone number quick and i'm doing great
435-232-5029
From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:18 PM
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:18 PM
answer your phone
I thought it was a Sears store calling my phone… and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with that at dinner, but the joke was on me. After calling three times he sent the “answer your phone” email . The zone leader let the missionaries call home to confirm what time they would get to Skype on Christmas day. Kyn was with me, so we both got to talk for a couple of minutes, it was so fun to get to talk to him.
CHRISTMAS DAY!!
After a lot of “technical support” from Kyndra, Dallon, and Steve’s co-worker (thank you!), we were able to set up a three-way Skype (we tried four-way, but couldn’t get it to work). It was so great to see and talk to Garrett…. He looked and sounded so good, said he is feeling so much better. We were very fortunate in that we were able to Skype with him for about 2 ½ hours, then he took a break and let another missionary use the computer, and then two hours later he called us back and we got to talk for another hour. What an amazing Christmas gift! I’ve inserted a “snapshot” of the Skype screen, not the best, but you get the idea.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 1ST:
Back to the “regular” weekly email. He really sounds like his old self (a lot of adjectives could be used here, so pick your own), just so grateful that he’s back to being healthy and goofy in his own special way. J
This week was stinkin’ legit for us, ha, we did a ton of work and got some serious sweat on the old brow. Being out here is so flippin’ fun when you’re busy as a beaver, ha. We went out and visited a lot of people and learned a lot about the area. It’s also such a huge blessing to have the truck, we split every other week with the Elders in Seqaqa.
So some new news, the branch is going good and all in Naduna, but there really isn't a whole lot of work out there for us and we only have one investigator and it has been way hard to make contact with the chief so he is no longer top priority. Now we will focus on an area called Vunivau. That area has 80 less active members and when we went around this week to see some of them they told us the only reason that they are inactive is because the taxi costs 30 dollars to get to Labasa, and since like 90% of those people don't have jobs that’s pretty much not an option to go to church (I mean their testimonies aren't very strong so how could you really expect them to go?). But what I'm getting at is that we had a meeting with the senior couple here and they said for us to work on that area and hopefully we can open another little unit there and if we do it will hopefully be bigger than Naduna, haah. But ya, we are stoked and we still need to get organized ...... or, we’ve REALLY gotta get organized, and we don't have the truck this week so it’s rough, but oh well, haha.
Today was way awesome as well, we had a member here who wanted to feed us on Christmas, but we already had 3 dinner appts. so he said he would do it for New Years. So yesterday we took 4 chickens and some Roro and some Dalo out to his house, then this morning he cooked it all in the Lovo/earth oven and at 11 we went and picked it up and took it to this way sweet beach called Korovatu. So for P-Day we chowed down and played some serious volleyball with all these Fijians, ha, man, it was so cool. I hope you guys aren't too cold right now! I went down to rinse my feet off in the ocean and another Elder came and shoved me in, haha, no big deal. But while you guys have that wonderful snow I've been chillin’ in the ocean.
So this New Year season is pretty awesome because of a tradition here in Fiji. It’s totally “game on” to throw a bucket of water on people and even when we are just in our proselyting clothes we will get drenched, it’s so fun and lasts for like the whole month. So the last lesson I taught yesterday I was soaked. Good times.
Love you all! Always remember to have fun and laugh.
Peace and blessings.
Your son, brother, grandson, cousin, nephew, friend, best friend, and missionary,
ELDER HANKE
So some new news, the branch is going good and all in Naduna, but there really isn't a whole lot of work out there for us and we only have one investigator and it has been way hard to make contact with the chief so he is no longer top priority. Now we will focus on an area called Vunivau. That area has 80 less active members and when we went around this week to see some of them they told us the only reason that they are inactive is because the taxi costs 30 dollars to get to Labasa, and since like 90% of those people don't have jobs that’s pretty much not an option to go to church (I mean their testimonies aren't very strong so how could you really expect them to go?). But what I'm getting at is that we had a meeting with the senior couple here and they said for us to work on that area and hopefully we can open another little unit there and if we do it will hopefully be bigger than Naduna, haah. But ya, we are stoked and we still need to get organized ...... or, we’ve REALLY gotta get organized, and we don't have the truck this week so it’s rough, but oh well, haha.
Today was way awesome as well, we had a member here who wanted to feed us on Christmas, but we already had 3 dinner appts. so he said he would do it for New Years. So yesterday we took 4 chickens and some Roro and some Dalo out to his house, then this morning he cooked it all in the Lovo/earth oven and at 11 we went and picked it up and took it to this way sweet beach called Korovatu. So for P-Day we chowed down and played some serious volleyball with all these Fijians, ha, man, it was so cool. I hope you guys aren't too cold right now! I went down to rinse my feet off in the ocean and another Elder came and shoved me in, haha, no big deal. But while you guys have that wonderful snow I've been chillin’ in the ocean.
So this New Year season is pretty awesome because of a tradition here in Fiji. It’s totally “game on” to throw a bucket of water on people and even when we are just in our proselyting clothes we will get drenched, it’s so fun and lasts for like the whole month. So the last lesson I taught yesterday I was soaked. Good times.
Love you all! Always remember to have fun and laugh.
Peace and blessings.
Your son, brother, grandson, cousin, nephew, friend, best friend, and missionary,
ELDER HANKE
So…there you go, sorry it took me so long to get this all updated. There’s been a lot going on with the holidays, etc. Most of you probably know that we lost our sweet Grandpa Ed on Christmas day, so thanks to everyone for your support through that. He was an amazing man and we were so blessed to have him in our lives for such a long time.
Happy New Year to everyone, may 2012 bring you all the best!
(By the way... as of January 2nd, Garrett is 10 months in... 14 months to go.... time seems to be flying by.)
Happy New Year to everyone, may 2012 bring you all the best!
(By the way... as of January 2nd, Garrett is 10 months in... 14 months to go.... time seems to be flying by.)
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