I’m late posting again…. Sorry everyone!

Last Monday I was able to “chat back and forth” with Garrett – haven’t done that for quite a long time, it was fun! Anyway, I’ll just somewhat re-create our chat… 

I told Garrett that I figured from his credit card charges that he’d gotten a new suit:

I’m sorry for having to do that but the one I got should last for a long time so I’m not really worried. And it seems like I’ve kinda reached the top of the ladder, haven’t gained any weight in a while, kinda just flatlined here at 230, haha.

Thank you so much for the support.

I told him it was fine that he got a suit, but that I hope it’s the last one he needs to get! (i.e., don’t gain any more weight! 230??!), and asked if he needed anything else.  We also sent a few pics we’d taken up the canyon that weekend, before church we ran up to see the leaves and ended up taking (attempting, at least) some pics of us with the ipad.  (I only agreed because Steve was actually in a suit jacket with a tie, and I needed proof of that.) 

Awesome, haha. No I don’t need anything.

How’s work going?

PS I printed out the pic of you two and I’m gunna slap it up on the wall to see every day. (nice tie eh?)

Oh please we all are lovin’ it over here, haha, I’m gunna paste one up in every room in the flat so everyone knows whose parents that is haha.

We’re going to Frisco again today, my comp is addicted to cars and there is a huge Ferrari dealership downtown so I’m going to let him roam around in there for a bit so he stops buggin me about it. Anything you all want from Frisco that I could send you? T-shirts? anything?

Us two and one other companionship will be going just to walk around I guess. I am not a fan of doing this, haha, but they are, so whatever, right?

Then I asked when he was going to send the “real letter” for the day…

Haha, it’s a work in progress and it will probably be sent around 4 when we get back into town. Itss sweet to chat though, haha, it’s been a while.

 I suppose then that they left to go to Frisco to check out the Ferrari dealership, etc.,…. Then several hours later Steve got this email:

Thanks for the emails, the past couple they are really good and it reminds of a year ago receiving the football updates, it’s the best.

Hahaha, no test drives today, we went and they only had one car there. It was really just a store, we went there and a bunch of other stores, it’s so much walking and the only store that’s worth going to in my opinion is the downtown Nike store. Other than that it’s just a bunch of walking for me, but Mom and Kyndra would love it though. So many stores it’s ridiculous and then you get to the mall and it’s like four stories tall and jam packed with people, it’s really annoying.  And we have to wear our proselyting clothes and so everyone asks us the price of things or for directions because they think that we work there. Ha ha, it’s so crazy!

Anywho…  I heard the USU -BYU game is on the 5^th, ha, that’s gunna be crazy because all the Tongan Young Men are all BYU fans and then I always talk about USU, so if we win I will be able to hold it over their heads all year.  But if they win they will never let me forget it so I’m actually getting kinda nervous.  Haha, it should be a good time though. And mom told me that you both ran into some missionaries at the football game and she asked if we would be able to do that, haha, there is no way, our Pres. would never allow it, but then again if I did I would probably not be able to regain focus so it’s probably a good thing that we can’t.

Anywho, that’s all from this week.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

That’s all folks!  I’ll try to be more on the ball with next week’s update! 

 I only have time for a short letter today.

Sounds like a lot is going on at home lately, that was one of the best emails I have received so far, haha. Not very many questions, but a lot of info, very nice, haha.

Our week went pretty good as for the people we are teaching. Bill hd skin cancer removed from his nose on Tuesday. We were still able to see him this week a couple times, but he wasn’t able to make it to church which was a bummer.

Beta and Sita came here for one day this last week.  The operation went fine, it must not have been a very serious one because she looked fine and didn’t have any sort of bandage. I think they were trying to stretch the bone, because if they do the whole operation then it would stunt her growth, but she is good.  Such a sweet little girl.

And as for Michelle (the lady Garrett met at the bbq place – he wrote about her last week) and her husband, we stopped by for our lesson last night and only she was home so we had to set up another time for this Sunday.  She is way awesome. Anyway, her sons sound sweet - one is the catcher for the University of Kentucky and the other a nose tackle for the University of Sacramento, they sound huge, haha, but we are looking forward to teaching them.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week.  Every once in a while we go on exchanges just for 24 hours with other missionaries in my district and 1 set lives in downtown Frisco, haha, and they are on bikes, haha, and they are both like 5'9 and 150 pounds.  So while I was there I was trying to keep up with him goin’ up and down these huge hills on their little bikes, haha, it was classic!  And I'll be doin’ it again next week.

Peace and blessings, til next week,

Elder Hanke

First off I’m super duper jealous of that game, geez, that’s awesome.

Haha, and I will try and muster out a good email now, haha.

So the week went pretty good, didn’t have a whole lot of appointments so all we could really do is hit the streets and knock doors. The thing with our Fijian Branch is that the only way we can find Fijians is through referrals and if we receive no referrals then there is no work there and since we got only one referral this last week we don’t really have new people to teach so when we have no one to teach then the only thing to do is find and the only real way to do that is by teaching members, street contacting, and tracting. So that is what we did this week mostly on the tracting side of things. There is something weird about tracting, to me it’s almost the most ineffective thing that we could possibly do besides doing nothing, but something about it brings blessings. We tracted a ton this week and were able to find some new people to teach which we are really excited about.

I think it also brings blessings to our investigators that we already have as well, we had some awesome lessons this week.

First Bill, who is the Bishop’s brother, we stopped by this week and talked about the Plan of Salvation, the great plan for our happiness. He liked what he learned but his only concern was that he didn’t like the idea of having to pay for someone else’s transgression (i.e. Adam’s transgression). We then explained that we are not accountable for his transgression, that we don’t believe in infant baptism, we are not born in sin, but that we are all only accountable for what we do. That we need to fix any wrongs that we have done in our lives to the best of our power and allow Christ to fill in for the rest. He readily accepted what we shared and he said that he wished someone would have told him that 50 years ago. Haha, what a great guy. The Bishop keeps on telling us that this is the most important part of our missions, haha, to teach his brother, haha, great guy.

Little Sita had her surgery last week on Tuesday and we haven’t heard from them directly but from what we understand it went well so that is good. And other than her we still have quite a bit of potential. Last week on Thursday we had a lesson during dinnertime so we had to snag something to eat after so we went to go get some bbq.  When we walked in Elder Chapman was ordering and I started talking to this lady she was really nice and sounded like a member but when I asked her which ward she went to she told me that she wasn’t a member, but that her last husband was Tongan and his family was mostly members and that missionaries had stopped by to their house a lot before. She asked us where we served and we told her the Fijian Ward and she got all excited and said she had remarried to a Fijian fella so we will go there either tonight or on Wednesday to meet them.  I’m super pumped for that, haha, blessings out the wazzooo this week.

Other than that nothin’ really happened, we ate a bunch of food and had some good times with some members.  My suits aren’t fitting all that well these days and it’s not the stomach really because my waist isn’t really changing. But because I’ve been squatting like crazy my thighs and calves are just getting bigger so now my pants are like skin tight on my legs (haha i look like Justin Bieber hahah).  Good thing I have a jacket on when I wear them because my bahooki (buttox) is getting bigger as well, haha.

So just so you know a new suit might be in the forecast, but I dunno, we run a lot as well so I just don’t know what to do, haha.

Love ya'll, peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

We sent Gar a video clip of the end of the USU-Utah game, along with a little update on how the AGGIES took it to the Utes. :) (Yes Mike, that jab was for you.)  Go Aggies - what a sweet win!

And really... another suit? My goodness... a little TMI there.  Gar should have enough suits for every possible body size by the time this mission is done.

Hope everyone is doing well... our love to everyone! And our continued prayers are with Di.

Love,

Nova

My apologies everyone… I’ve really been slacking! Here are the letters from the last two weeks. 

August 27, 2012

Garrett’s note to Dad:

Dang how did it fall?  That sounds rough, how long will you be down for? I just read mom’s email after yours and it sounds like she isn’t too upset so it must not be too bad. Seriously though thank heavens for the boots, ha, man crazy. So will you get some sort of medical leave from work or how does that work with the company you’re at right now? Haha now I have the 101 questions, ha. Will you be able to go back to that same work when it heals? And  does it hurt pretty bad to walk on?

Anywho ya, I havent heard from Malo (Elder Malo that served in Fiji, now going to USU and on the football team) since leaving so I hope he is doing good. There is a Fijian boy from my branch here that just signed with Utah State, he is about 6'5, 300 lbs., good kid. I hope Malo finds him up there and gets to meet him. I can’t remember his name because he goes to the singles ward mostly but  I’ll try and get it for you.

Let me know about the foot, I’m interested.

Garrett’s note to Mom:

Well sounds like you have had a crazy week that would be very opposite from us haha im just glad to hear that everything is going better and that everyone is doing ok. Definitely could look at this as a blessing for you two to be able to spend some solid time together. I’m looking forward to some good stories from both of you because of this haha.

As for our week looking back we had a very slow week probably the slowest on my whole mission thus far so it was very stressful and very frustrating, but there really was nothing we could do but just go out and work it out. We did have some good lessons with our investigators though we are teaching the Bishop’s half brother from the English ward and he is doing well. He was able to make it to church and feel the strong spirit that was present as the speakers gave their talks, so that was good. We also had a couple of our Fijian investigators at church, their names are Beta and her daughter Sita, they are very humble and great people.  Sita was born with some physical disabilities but she is the cutest little girl ever. Someone sponsored them to come over to America to get her back fixed and so that’s why they are here. Unfortunately we will miss them this week, they are going to LA for a surgery so we won’t be able to meet with them. But we did wish them the best . From what I was told they are going to stretch the bones in her back somehow, I don’t know how that works but that’s all I know. Other than that nothing really happened. We don’t have enough miles to make the trip across the Bay so we couldn’t see those investigators that stay there.

This upcoming week we have zone conf. so that will be good. Some Elder Gay is coming to the mission to preside so I’m pumped for that

Hope all is well, talk to you next week.

Peace and blessings,

Your baby boy

September 3, 2012

Garrett emailed around 9:00 a.m. on Labor Day saying he was going to Alcatraz and didn’t know how long he’d be there but he’d probably write again in a few weeks if he could.  (Yes, I was my typical gullible self.)

Several hours later we got this email:

Hey there fam,

So I’m pooped from walking all day long I feel like I could sleep for hours right now, haha.  Alcatraz was cool but the walking to and from was just up and down thoseF risco hills which is crazy haha. We also went to Lombard Street. and we were riding (the trolley cars?) with some other missionaries, so we got out before it started because there was a line to go down and we just said to pick us up when you get to the to.  When they got there we were just gonna hurry and jump in but the traffic police told us if you get in then I’m gonna give you a ticket so we had to walk down the whole thing while they drove, haha. Good  times but I’m gonna pass out.

Love you all.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke