This week was pretty solid. We had not very many appointments, but the ones we did have were solid and we did a ton of traveling, geeze-la-weeze haha.  On Wednesday we had a dinner in Hayward which is across the Bay from us at five oclock, thinking that if we left at 3 we would be fine. Haha, I was wrong. We hit rush hour and were in the car waiting to get across the bridge for three hours. Finally got to the house at six, haha.  The worst experience of my life, haha, but I learned my lesson.

On Tuesday we had another good day.  We had a lunch and lesson with a part member family, a lesson in downtown Frisco at 1, and then we had a dinner with a part-member family and a lesson in Hayward at 5. So we drove like 120 miles that day which is a ton.  We are allotted 1375 miles a month and we are already at 1000 miles so we are praying for God to stop the Odometer sometime soon, haha. That would be great.  But I’m not worried because we had such great lessons and it was definitely worth our time to do those things.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

Other than that, like you already know I guess,  we had a great Sunday. I was able to wear my sulu to church, which is always welcome,  I love that thing! Haha! And ya, I always bless the sacrament because they are low on young men. But after that the Stake Pres told me to come up and share with all of us “what is a missionary”, so I did.  Then when I finished and was about to walk away he asked me "can you bear your testimony in Fijian?", and I said yes, so he told me to go back up and share, haha, so I did, it was funny.  Then we had a huge eating and had a lot of fun with the members.  One thing that I love about my mission is the young men, they are my favorite. I love messing around with them and making sure that serving a mission is always on their mind, so I tend to spend most of my time with them when I can. I love my job.

God loves us.

Peace and Blessing,

Elder Hanke

I’m glad to hear that Garrett thinks that San Francisco traffic is the “worst experience of his life”.  Everything is relative I guess, right? J 

So… when you read the letter below, Garrett’s email will make a little more sense. When I sent my email to him I was pretty excited because the night before I’d received this email from Mary Tagilala, who I’ve decided to call my “Fijian Angel”. She is so sweet and kind… it is so nice of her to send these emails with updates and PICTURES. I love them!

Bula Nova :)

I hope this email finds you in the greatest of spirits :). I wanted to share more pictures with you. Elder Hanke (aka Elder Tavoi) is so well loved out here in the Fijian Branch. He gets on so well with everybody and is treated just like any other Fijian around here. He knows the Fijian sense of humor (believe me, it takes some getting use to if you're not familiar with it), and our YSA (Young Single Adult) and youth love his easy going attitude and wonderful spiritual sense.

Today, we farewelled our 2nd Missionary from the Fijian Branch and Elder Hanke along with Elder Mapa (Our newly called Missionary) said the Sacrament prayer in the FIjian Language. They were both amazingly fluent. Our Stake President was present in church today and after the Sacrament , the Stake President in his address to the Branch said this : " I didn't know Elder Mapa could speak Fijian, but then I heard him say the prayer in Fijian. Then I heard him (pointing at Elder Hanke) also saying the prayer in the Fijian Language and I was shocked. Does everybody here know how to speak Fijian??. (Everyone burst into laughter). President Havili was so impressed with Elder Hanke that when Elder Hanke was called up again to say a few words about being a missionary and when his talk ended, President Havili (Stake President) stopped Elder Hanke as he was leaving to go back to his seat and asked him to go back and bear his testimony in the Fijian Language. Elder Hanke went back and bore a wonderful Testimony in the Fijian language . (I gotta say this - I am Fijian, but believe me, I would not be able to go up and bear my testimony in the Fijian Language as well as Elder Hanke did today). He is amazing!!. You should be so proud of him :).

 Anyway, here's a few pictures of him taken today at the farewell dinner. He is well, has a wonderful companion. And yes, we hope to keep him forever in the Fijian Branch coz we love him!! :)

 Have a wonderful week :)

 Mary Tagilala

OK here’s the deal quickly.  The work is going great, we do have a lot of people that are really close to baptism and that is great.  We have been very blessed in this area but it’s not perfect, haha, we still have a ton of rough times.  The hardest is that all of our investigators live clear the heck out in the boonies where it takes an hour to get to them so we usually can only see them once a week, maybe twice if we are lucky.  And we have to travel forever for our member dinners, but I’m not complaining because I love the food.

Next topic, here’s my plans for coming home. I think I will go sell that summer and then I think I’m gonna go to UVU for school at least to start, and then somewhere along the road I will go to Fiji to see my people.

Anywho… I’m not feeling much like typing, I’m itchin’ to play some sport.

The gospel is true, God lives and Christ is our Savior.

Love you all!

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

Guess that’s it for this week!  I kept missing the chance to email “live” with Gar yesterday – bummer. But he obviously was focused on getting off of the computer and on to a court, or field… for whatever “sport” was on the menu for yesterday’s P-Day. 

Sure enjoyed a nice weekend in Duchesne and Vernal.  We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends!

Love to you all… and continued prayers for Di, Jeff and the kids.

What a good week. right?

We did a ton of service and a bunch of teaching, which is awesome.

We have a quote that I hung up in our flat that says something like:

“If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right”

So true, right?

I think that’s the main message we are trying to get others to understand; I think the only thing that can last is the family. We will all be resurrected someday whether we want to or not. that is a fact just as inescapable as death from this mortal body. It is up to us to choose the correct path to believe in Jesus Christ.  Live as He asks us to then we can know that when it is our time to be judged we will hear the Father say we are grateful for you making the right choice. I know this is true.

With that said our purpose as missionaries is to align our will with our Heavenly Father’s by helping people receive the Gospel.

We have 5 people who have accepted baptism in the Fijian branch. I feel so blessed to be able to work here and with these people and I can't wait to see them make covenants with God and draw closer to Him.

Other stuff that happened this week, we went to a Tongan wedding, ate a tone of food and had a bunch of fun. We did like 15 hours of service which is always welcome so overall it was a solid week.  Looking forward to this week, too, I’m pumped actually.

You’re in my prayers.

Peace and blessings!

Love ya'll,

Elder Hanke