Bula Vinaka!

Bula Bula Bula,

Thanks for the e-mail and I cannot stress how jealous I am that you had lunch with Rico, haha, man that’s sweet. Be sure to tell him hi for me every day until I get home. (Garrett is referring to one of his best buddies Jackson Everton, who returned from the Indianapolis, Indiana mission last week. What an amazing young man, so good to see him again!)

This has been a very great week, and I have been super humbled by a lot of things that have been happening. And all I can think about lately is the song "count your many blessings". Last Monday we were teaching a less-active member and at the end of the lesson we committed him to take Pres. Monson’s challenge from General Conference and make a list of all the blessings that he has in his life. Because I asked him to do this I decided that I should also follow that council from the prophet. The mission has made me realize in so many ways how blessed my life has been, I have a Mother and Father who support me in whatever, I have a strong relationship with my Sister and she is one of my best friends, I have the greatest Grandparents a kid could ask for and I have all four.  I have uncles, aunts, and cousins who are awesome and I feel like would do anything for me if I needed it, and I have the greatest group of friends that anyone could ask for and they are all examples to me. And that is just a start. I sat there for a whole hour of personal study time realizing how blessed my life has been.

I got to the end and realized something, that I had saved the greatest blessing of all for last. I have a Savior, a Redeemer, an older brother who suffered personally for me. Can anyone ask for a greater blessing? All of the time we hear people say that they wish they could have fame or fortune and I know that thought creeps into my mind sometimes, but it’s true knowledge to know that even if we had all of the fame in the world and all of the money in the world it would surmount to a perfect nothingness without a knowledge of Christ, without the belief, the hope, the faith and the testimony that He died for us so that we could live again. I cannot express with words the gratitude that I have for Him, I love Him for what he did for me. This doctrine has been confirmed to me over and over again on my mission, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. This is what I am most grateful for and I can't say it enough. I am grateful for what He has done so I can go out each day to give thanks for this wonderful blessing. I know that is the only real way we can give thanks to Him. "If ye love me, keep my commandments", "love one another", when we do this we can know for a surety that we are doing exactly what he wants we are who he wants us to be, and if we can do this I know that His grace is sufficient for us the we can receive all the Father hath.

I love this work, I love my Savior, this is His work, and this is His Kingdom here on earth. I KNOW MY SAVIOR LIVES, WHAT JOY THIS SENTENCE GIVES.

I love you all, have a good week.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

All I can add to that (through a few Mama tears) is… Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Picture that Garrett sent last week in the mail - The Halloweenie Mobile!

He included a couple of other pics that I won't be posting... but I will mention they went with the story he told last week of his pants blowing out! :)

(Anyone that wants to log on to the blog and turn this picture is welcome to do so! Most definitely beyond my mental capabilities tonight!)