Bula Vinaka!

Hello out there everyone…

Okay, I know – I’m about to be fired as the official blogger for Elder Hanke!  I’m taking applications for the position….if you know of anyone that would like the job, please let me know. :)  (There’s nowhere to go but up, right?)

Enjoy the notes below – short but sweet.  And just FYI – we’ve received two letters from Garrett’s Mission President over the last week with his release date(s).  The first one said February 21, 2013; the second one said, “My apologies, but the correct release date for Elder Hanke is April 3, 2013”.  And then when I emailed with Garrett on Monday he told me it’s up in the air… so we’ll see what comes of that.

Enjoy these notes, and my apologies for the delay! 

Love to you all, thank you so much for your support of Elder Hanke.

This is the day we ref'd the youth volleyball tourney. These are my boys Lopetti and Garvin.

(Garvin is also the one who cuts my hair.)

A usual lunch of leftovers:  KFC, deep fried fish head, and Lu (roro leaves cooked with coconut milk, onions and corned beef). 

A group of us missionaries down at Fisherman's Warf. (Yeah, that's my boy with his eyes closed!)

On October 27^th, we received this letter in the mail with a few pictures (above):

Noqu Matuuvale Lolomas,

These are the receipts for the eye exams. They said to just sent them in to get reimbursement. (Gar got his eyes examined and ended up with contacts – he said it’s great to see the street signs when he’s driving.)

Thanks for the support you have given to me lately.  It means a lot to me and Elder Chapman.

Hope all is well. We are good here. No baptisms yet but I think God realized how easy it was for me to get them in Fiji so he’s makin it extra hard here, haha. I’m just lookin forward to each day as a learning experience and hopefully we can make something happen here.

Hope you have a good Halloween, we’re planning on one.

Peace and blessings.

Love,

Your Baby Boy

October 29, 2012

Bula Bula Bula

So the week went well no complaints here. We were able to meet with most of our investigators and they are doing good.

Last week little Sita participated in the Ward’s primary program. They are like part of the Ward but they are still waiting for the permission from the father, and he is in Japan right now so that isn't very easy. But we will keep working with them to get them into a covenant with Heavenly Father. When we invited Sita to be baptized yesterday she just had the biggest grin on her face and she wanted to be baptized right now haha. I know she will be soon. Beta has some challenges to overcome first but I think she wants to as well the only problem is that they stay in Gilroy during the week which is around 2 hours away from us so we can only see them on the weekends when they come here. But we will keep on prayin for them.

And Bill is also doing good, he is thinking about having the Bishop (his brother) marry him to his girlfriend which is interesting, we have really funny lessons with this guy he is older and hard of hearing so it makes our conversations pretty funny sometimes and Elder Chapman is a quiet guy so it’s extra funny with him. But right now he basically said that he would get baptized if he didn’t have a girlfriend but since he does he doesn't want to do anything that will rock the boat at all so he's gunna take this process slow. Which is kind of frustrating for us to try and slow down but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Have a great week.  Happy Birthday Dad!

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

November 5, 2012

So this last week was pretty crazy we had a lot goin on.

First of all I just want to remind you about how nuts being in downtown San Francisco is on a bike dressed like we are, haha, I can’t even explain it. It's definitely a one of a kind experience haha.  So the first thing that we did last Monday was go to this huge Methodist church right in the middle of the hairiest part of the city where Monday through Friday they serve breakfast lunch and dinner to the homeless. So we went there and gave our service during the lunch hour and that was easily the craziest 4 hours of my life. First we had to help with the preparation then while they were eating we were bus boys and then we had to clean up after. Haha I can't even tell you how bad I was sweating and how many grey hairs I developed just from those few hours.  Hundreds of homeless in a pretty small cafeteria all gettin in fights and yelling and trying to take stuff that isn’t theirs. It was sooo funny and I can’t wait to do it again.

But ultimately what I’m getting at is that service is the best. That was really one of the most intense positions I’ve ever been in and I wasn’t a very big fan in the moment, but the opportunity to serve is always the best opportunity.  It felt so good to help those people and after it was all over I felt a huge sense of gratitude for the blessings that I have and I just pray that I will remember always what the Lord has given me and all the blessings we all have and then realize that the only way real way we can say thank you is by giving back. I know that if we help others we are teaming up with God to accomplish His goal of blessings his children.

Sorry it’s short, love ya'll.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke