The last one...

This is it - the last one... the last email to receive from Elder Hanke as a missionary. I was afraid it would come down to this today...I chatted with Garrett for about 30 minutes… then he was outta there!  But I have to say that I understand...I’m so excited for Wednesday - I can hardly stand it!

Here’s the short message we got from him:

Man o mally thomas o mally the alley cat this is weird.

Haha who woulda thought this woulda ever happen right haha!

But I’ve got a few items of business.

What is my phone number again?

When will I be released?

What do you think about me flyin back?

And I would come back with them but half the reason for me to go would be to go to church at the branch and it doesn't start til 1, then i would need to stay back for a few hours and eat and tell stories right? (The Pike family was kind enough to offer to let Garrett go to or ride back from San Francisco with them when they take a little vaca there this weekend for spring break.)

I heard there is a flight that goes from provo to frisco for 69 bucks so if you could check on that, that would be good?

So I got him what he asked for, checked on flights, who knows what will happen.  We just kind of fly by the seat of our pants, but all is good.

I am so grateful to be his mom, and to have such amazing family and friends!  We are so blessed. 

So T minus 42 hours and counting… woot-woot!  J

Oh, and here’s an update on the homecoming! Due to scheduling conflicts and changes with General Conference, our ward had to change Fast Sunday to April 14^th.  So… we had to reschedule Garrett’s homecoming for April 28^th. Meeting time is 11:00 a.m., address is 1255 North 400 East.  Church is on the West side of the road.  We'd love to have everyone there!

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support – it’s been a great two years!  Kind of bittersweet right now... we will miss having him out there so very, very much... but it will be so awesome to have him home.  We wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

And then there was only ONE P-day left...

Well folks, Elder Hanke is now the official recipient of THE TRUNKIEST MISSIONARY award.  His ”chat” (no real letter again… so I give up) was so goofy today, so I hope all of you get a laugh.  He seems like a little kid on Christmas Eve… he’s had too much candy, he’s happy, excited… but when Christmas day is over it will be a little bittersweet and melancholy – because he’ll realize it’s all done and he can’t get it back.  But he’s happy, seems to be doing well… just enjoying his P-Day to the max for sure.  He’s now writing in what I would call complete Fijian/Ghetto slang, so fair warning.  J 

 

First email response:

Nova 

why dont you just write me a letter? life would be so easy, stop yo jokin and yo teasin, come on now you can write me a letter!  (Totally mocking me for begging for a letter…!)

Second response:

We are busy, I’m going to write you a letter that will make up for everything haha. Besides how am i supposed to focus when you and dad keep talkin about how i got justa couple days lef haha.

Third response:

hahahaha nova scotia, it’s ok we are just busy and I’m tired and we laugh too much in here fo me to e mail. But we are doing great haha. So i found out that there is a flight that goes from like  Idaho Falls to Oakland for like 60 bucks or something like that and we have a baptism on the 30th haha so the idea to come back that weekend might be back. But as for the month when i am home i have to get ready for work number one, so if we go visit family we can only really do it on the weekends because there is training during the week for the job that i would need to go to.

but what sayest thou?

And that’s all he wrote!

Can’t wait to see everyone at the homecoming… and anyone that wants to come to the airport when he flies in please feel more than welcome to do so.  March 27^th at 1:15 p.m. is the date and time… then afterwards we’ll all go to dinner.  And just a reminder... the homecoming is on April 14th at 11:00 a.m.

Love to everyone…thank you so much for your continued support. I can’t believe there’s only one week left… or more accurately… 8 days.. and about exactly 18 hours from right this minute! Woo-hoo! J

Love to get the pics....

So, we found out that Kyndra has a friend who happens to have a brother (Elder Hamilton from Rupert, Idaho) who is serving in Garrett's mission, and now in his same district since their recent transfers. Elder Hamilton sent his sister the below pictures yesterday, and she was kind enough to send them over to Kyn.  Always love to get the pics.... they do a mama good.

As of right now... 14 days... 21 hours... 26 minutes... until the plane lands...  :)

Two to go...

Thought I’d get today’s email put right on the blog so that I don’t get caught a week behind schedule again… but – there’s really nothing to post.  Elder Tavoi has now reached the SUPER TRUNKY stage…. (I guess that’s what you’d call it.) 

I’ll translate the chat I had with him today… because basically he is now just writing in what must be Polynesian/American/Trunky Missionary slang, which is truly worthy of a “ha ha ha”. 

The initial email today was true to form with a…

“Yo Novs, my mama, how’s it going?”…

Which I followed up with “How are you?”, and then got the reply of:

“Super good mama, super good. Thanks for asking, ha ha. How’s the jobsite these days?  But for real on the real, how are you doin? Sorry, but I don’t feel much like emailing.  Forgive me, but I’m planning on sending you a nice letter to make up for this past week, and the next two weeks, haha.” (Major translation I just did there.)

I then, of course, asked several questions trying to get any kind of an update from him, and also asked how he was planning on merging back into using the English language. 

“I ain’t gonna merge back, haha, only for those mas importante occasions”.

So…. that’s all he wrote folks!  If I get the letter in the mail, I’ll post it on the blog.  In the meantime, we’ll just be grateful for a healthy, happy missionary who loves what he’s doing – can’t ask for much more than that, right?  J

16 days and counting….

Three...

Sorry everyone, I’m a slow poke…

Didn’t really get a “letter” from Garrett last Monday, just had more of a short chat. He’ll usually respond to my emails with a “What’s up Mom?”, and it goes from there – then before I know it, his email time is up!  So here’s what I got out of him:

Life is super good right now, we are havin a good time out here.  The best is this Samoan family that we are meeting with right now they are all super awesome and their son "Pesi" we gave him a baptism date yesterday night for the 30th of March. He is super ready and there are a couple others who will be baptized out of the family very soon which is awesome. I feel very at home with them and we are able to spend like 4 or 5 nights there a week teaching and eating which is sweet.  I thought I would come here to this area and lose some weight because I wouldn't be around as many of my kind but I was very wrong, I might end up gaining a bit, haha.

Other than that things over all are just really good, Richmond is still ghetto and is still awesome, haha. 

After a few questions from me, this is what I got back…

When I say “my kind” I mean that sometimes I feel like our family was supposed to be from Fiji, haha! And I won’t have time to e-mail again after, sorry, busy busy.

I understand a little of Samoan and Tongan but I speak less.  Just the normal stuff like hello, how are you, I’m good, I want to eat, hahahahaha, where’s the food, I’m full, hahaha.

The days are going quickly now, we’ll be picking him at the airport before we know it!

Love to everyone – I’ll try to get the new emails posted a little more quickly, only a couple to go!