Chilly in Fiji....?

Ni sa Bula Vinaka people,

Weather forecast is cloudy with a chance of flooding, don't drive your trucks on flooded bridges and cover your windows so no rain comes in. Hahahahaha, classic.

Monday/P-Day- Had a great day of volleyball and food, with a sweet family home evening night that was both hilarious and spiritual, with people who don't speak English or Fijian, ha.  They made us some curry for dinner and I'm the kinda guy who can handle some chilis if needed, but eating a whole one the size of my thumb without any warning can be dangerous!  (And it hurt, haha, but it was still very good.)

Tuesday- District meeting, normal, but after we went to lunch and I ate all the fried chicken they had in the place, great food.  Afterwards we went to Naduna, got soaking wet and taught some lessons to our investigator Salote and the recent converts Ili and Te. Very good lessons. Salote is having a hard time and I really see that the gospel is helping her become a better person.

Wednesday- Pretty slow, Elder Seila’s last day so we just visited some people in Labasa and had some good food.

Thursday- Seila leaves and the whole day is spent with Elder Callahan the ZL (Zone Leader) running to the airport. Pretty lame day but what can ya do.

Friday- Elder Mecham and I's first day,  weekly planning until 4 then the rest of the day was spent showing the new sisters around Labasa and the members here....... kind of lame.

Saturday- With our areas Naduna and Bulileka, because they are so far away and the weeks we don't have the truck we have to take a bus or cab out to the area (there are only 2 buses that run to these places a day). And before we leave we need to get a hold of either 1 of the 2 people that own cell phones in these areas to check and see if the people we need to visit are there. Well guess what, we couldn't get a hold of either one of them all day so we couldn't go do any teaching all day.  It was the worst.

Sunday- hahahaha classic jungle Naduna church is supposed to start at 10 but it was like typhoon weather.  The rain and wind was crazy so we are there by ourselves just waiting to see if anyone would show up. Around 10:30 the Unit Leader showed up in shorts and a t-shirt all soaked and we spent the first hour with him putting a tarp up so people could sit inside, ha. I don't know if you've ever tried to put a tarp up in crazy wind but if you haven't then I will let you know now it ain't easy. After we finally finished that, all muddy and soaked, people showed up and we did a small sacrament meeting. It was cool to see all the ladies come even though the weather was so bad.

After we went to lunch at a member’s house in Labasa. When we showed up their whole house on the inside was wet from how crazy the storm was, so I went out there with another guy and we spent an hour hangin’ up a tarp to cover up their windows.  It was freezing but classic at the same time. So my church clothes got drenched twice yesterday, but now it’s just a great memory, hahaha.

How are you doing this wonderful day?

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Hanke

Is anyone else thinking “freezing”…?  J

Can I throw in my own “ha-ha”….? Sounds like he’s doing well, but had a couple of frustrating days this past week, which is all part of life. I guess we’ll need to be prepared to wrap him up in lots of blankets when he gets home. 

Hope everyone has a nice week. Thanks so much for your support of Elder Hanke.

Today when I emailed Garrett I said something about really missing an email from him last week.  He said, “I did send one!”, then he sent the below email from last week right over.  So, today ended up being a “two-for-one”, which I’ll take any time!

Garrett mentions “Elder Malo” in his email below, who is Logan Malohifo’ou.  As you’ll read, Elder Malo served in Fiji with Garrett.  He finished his mission last October, and just recently signed to play football at USU in Logan.  His girlfriend is related to a family in our ward, and her Aunt had told me that he would be visiting our ward this weekend for a missionary homecoming.  So… yes, we were pretty anxious to meet him, it was awesome to talk to him and hear how much fun he and Garrett had together.  (This pic is Elder Malo and his girlfriend.)

Letter from January 8, 2012

First of all what’s up my family? How is it?

Over here it is just fan-freakin-tastic,  ha.

Second-of-all,  haha,  the shorts are for my boy over here in Labasa, he is the man.  His name is Pita Vakalala, but he grew up in Cali and we always just talk in like thug English just like us boys from the hood do, ha. But he was saying how he misses stuff from America, especially b-ball shorts and I owe him some because we eat at his house about 5 times a week! When I come back to Fiji I will stay at his house because we are like family, so pretty much you’re sending them to a relative that you haven't met yet. He is around 28 with 3 kids; he and his wife and the rest of the family all got sealed together in October while I was still in Suva, so I got to be there.

Now the whole deal with Elder Malo is stinkin’ funny, ha.   He was the AP (Assistant to the President) when I worked in the office,  so we lived in the same flat for the last 3 months of his mission.  He was kind of like my “older brother”.  And I knew that he would go to USU, ha, the whole time he would talk down on UTAH and USU saying how when he is in a BYU jersey he will smoke them, but I guess not. It will be easy to recognize him, he is like 6'8”, big guy, definitely the biggest in the room kind of a deal. Tell him to e-mail me, okay?  He sent one but haven't heard from him since, ha, he’s probably focused on that girl.

Now for the week , it was what we call LEGIT!  We got some serious work done and had a great time doing it. It has been raining here like you wouldn't believe and we’ve had some flood warnings but it has cooled down the last couple days. But earlier in the week we had 2 lessons planned out in Naduna, and when we went out it was just pouring and we just had to trudge through it. Carrying an umbrella here really isn't worth while because you'll end up giving it to someone who needs it more anyway. So long story short, we were soaked, like UN-believabley soaked, ha, after crossing a river up to our belly buttons and a few more creeks to ours knees, and then walking the trail that was mud up to our shins.  We ended up getting the lessons in and were able to bring the Gospel into those people’s lives that night, so it was definitely worth it (not to mention we got some Bomb food out of it as well).

There is a bucket-load of stuff happening over here and it is just crazy!  If you really wanna see crazy stuff happen come to Fiji and share the Gospel. You'll see miracles, it’s so true.

We went on splits with the zone-leaders on Tuesday.  We went to an area called Boca, and we prayed before we left that we would be able to find someone out there to talk to and show us where a member lived. Well guess what? We found a lot more than that! We go out and as we were driving around we decided just to pull over and ask these 3 guys, and what would you know but one guy was wearing a CTR ring.  He told us that the Elders haven't been there for like 10 years, since he was baptized, and that he and his family along with some of the other members in the area wanted to go to church but could only afford to go about 2 times a year, Christmas and some other time, because the taxi into town is 11 dollars (remember that is only like 6 dollars US). The other 2 guys he was with said that they used to be taught by the missionaries and that they wanted to get baptized so we got out of the truck and introduced ourselves, and he then proceeded to tell us about like 5 families who lived in the area who wanted to come to church. So this last week we've gone out there as much as possible teaching to our new investigators and helping less active members rekindle their testimonies.   We have a combined family home evening tonight with a few of the families so I'm stoked, we should be able to start a whole new unit out there within a couple months. Us and the senior couple here are really excited for this area, so stoked , yyyyeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahahhhh, BOOM!

So if you don't believe in Fijian Miracles.........Start believing.

Anyway, the work is good if you can't tell. Transfers come in this Saturday and I really hope Elder Seila doesn't leave, but he thinks he will.  We'll see.

Shout out to Aunt Bev and Uncle Jim, Happy Anniversary, and Happy Birthday to Audra and Savannah.

Peace and Blessings ,

Elder Hanke

Letter from January 15, 2012

What’s up fam?

It’s a bummer because all of the really good stuff this last week happened on Monday and Tuesday.  The rest of the week Elder Seila was sick, he had pink-eye in both eyes, which gave him a bad headache. So, we moved the whole birthday deal to this weekend, and there’s not a whole lot to report.

One thing though, transfers.  Bummer, Elder Seila is leaving me, and I was ticked when I found out, ha. He helped me a ton with being a missionary, with teaching, and a ton on the language. My new comp. is Elder Mecham, he is a Mauri Elder from New Zealand. He's tight, but he’s finished in 1 month, so I'll get a new comp. again in the middle of February when he goes home, ha.  He’s trunky, and very ready to be finished, so I'll be hearing all month about how bad he wants to go home, ha.

Anyway, I'm really tired right now for some reason, probably from being so bored and doing nothing the last few days while Elder Seila has been sick. That’s how it is now, if we don't do anything I get so tired, but if we work our butts off then I'm o.k., ha, oh well.

Sorry for the short e-mail but you get last week’s anyway, ha.

If you see Elder Malo tell him to start finding my Poly wife, haha!

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Hanke

Happy, Happy Birthday Elder Hanke...

Garrett is turning the big 2-0 this coming Saturday, January 14th.... can't believe he'll be 20.  So strange not to have him around to celebrate with, but I'm sure he and the Elders will take care of things - no worries there.

So... I didn't get an email from Garrett (bummer)... but Kyndra did!  She sent him a quick "Happy Birthday" message, and told him that she was getting ready to go snowboarding.  He replied telling her good luck, then asked her to wish him luck as well, because he was going to go climb a coconut tree.  (20 going on... 8...?)  :)

And that's all he wrote...

Hope everyone has a good week!

Holiday update.....

Finally catching up from the holidays and taking some time to post our interactions with Elder Hanke from the last couple of weeks.  The “sequence of events” is detailed below, and might I add, it was beyond GREAT to get to talk with Garrett... it was AWESOME!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday season!  Ours was definitely different, but that's what makes them memorable, right?

MONDAY, DECEMBER 19^TH:

Kyndra and I were at Kneaders having some dinner when we got the first email from Garrett (below).  He really threw us off!

From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:00 PM

Nova quick i need the last 4 digits of my social security number so i can activate this skype deal

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:04 PM, Nova Hanke <nhanke@iconfitness.com> wrote:

I will only tell you that # if you tell me how you’re really doing!  Ha ha ha…..

From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:07 PM

Give me your phone number quick and i'm doing great

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:08 PM, Nova Hanke <nhanke@iconfitness.com> wrote:

435-232-5029

From: Garrett Hanke [mailto:garrett.hanke@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 7:18 PM

answer your phone

I thought it was a Sears store calling my phone… and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with that at dinner, but the joke was on me.   After calling three times he sent the “answer your phone” email .   The zone leader let the missionaries call home to confirm what time they would get to Skype on Christmas day.   Kyn was with me, so we both got to talk for a couple of minutes, it was so fun to get to talk to him.

CHRISTMAS DAY!!

After a lot of “technical support” from Kyndra, Dallon, and Steve’s co-worker (thank you!), we were able to set up a three-way Skype (we tried four-way, but couldn’t get it to work).   It was so great to see and talk to Garrett…. He looked and sounded so good, said he is feeling so much better.  We were very fortunate in that we were able to Skype with him for about 2 ½ hours, then he took a break and let another missionary use the computer, and then two hours later he called us back and we got to talk for another hour.  What an amazing Christmas gift!  I’ve inserted a “snapshot” of the Skype screen, not the best, but you get the idea.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1^ST:

Back to the “regular” weekly email.  He really sounds like his old self (a lot of adjectives could be used here, so pick your own), just so grateful that he’s back to being healthy and goofy in his own special way.  J

This week was stinkin’ legit for us, ha, we did a ton of work and got some serious sweat on the old brow. Being out here is so flippin’ fun when you’re busy as a beaver, ha.  We went out and visited a lot of people and learned a lot about the area. It’s also such a huge blessing to have the truck, we split every other week with the Elders in Seqaqa.

So some new news, the branch is going good and all in Naduna, but there really isn't a whole lot of work out there for us and we only have one investigator and it has been way hard to make contact with the chief so he is no longer top priority. Now we will focus on an area called Vunivau.  That area has 80 less active members and when we went around this week to see some of them they told us the only reason that they are inactive is because the taxi costs 30 dollars to get to Labasa, and since like 90% of those people don't have jobs that’s pretty much not an option to go to church (I mean their testimonies aren't very strong so how could you really expect them to go?). But what I'm getting at is that we had a meeting with the senior couple here and they said for us to work on that area and hopefully we can open another little unit there and if we do it will hopefully be bigger than Naduna, haah. But ya, we are stoked and we still need to get organized ...... or, we’ve REALLY gotta get organized, and we don't have the truck this week so it’s rough, but oh well, haha.

Today was way awesome as well, we had a member here who wanted to feed us on Christmas, but we already had 3 dinner appts. so he said he would do it for New Years. So yesterday we took 4 chickens and some Roro and some Dalo out to his house, then this morning he cooked it all in the Lovo/earth oven and at 11 we went and picked it up and took it to this way sweet beach called Korovatu.  So for P-Day we chowed down and played some serious volleyball with all these Fijians, ha, man, it was so cool.  I hope you guys aren't too cold right now! I went down to rinse my feet off in the ocean and another Elder came and shoved me in, haha, no big deal. But while you guys have that wonderful snow I've been chillin’ in the ocean.

So this New Year season is pretty awesome because of a tradition here in Fiji. It’s totally “game on” to throw a bucket of water on people and even when we are just in our proselyting clothes we will get drenched, it’s so fun and lasts for like the whole month. So the last lesson I taught yesterday I was soaked.  Good times.

Love you all! Always remember to have fun and laugh.

Peace and blessings.

Your son, brother, grandson, cousin, nephew, friend, best friend, and missionary,


ELDER HANKE

So…there you go, sorry it took me so long to get this all updated.  There’s been a lot going on with the holidays, etc. Most of you probably know that we lost our sweet Grandpa Ed on Christmas day, so thanks to everyone for your support through that.  He was an amazing man and we were so blessed to have him in our lives for such a long time. 

Happy New Year to everyone, may 2012 bring you all the best!

(By the way... as of January 2nd, Garrett is 10 months in... 14 months to go.... time seems to be flying by.)

Countdown to Christmas...

Bula Vinaka Na

How is it? Cold? Haha, suckers.

Not gonna lie though, I kinda miss the snow, alright I REALLY miss it. It doesn't feel like December here, just feels like everyone is playing Christmas music in July, but oh well, ha.

First I wanna say thanks for the package and also would like to ask a question: How did you expect me to take all of the little bags on the 20 passenger plane back to Labasa? Haha! Needless to say I opened it all, gave away all the candy and somehow stuffed all the other stuff into my bag somewhat successfully.

Now for the week, sweeeeeet, got back to Labasa on Thursday, and just started working away. We had two of our investigators baptized on Saturday, and 28 members came to our jungle chapel in Naduna. The chapel is the one we helped build like the first day I got here, it has four posts with a tin roof and no walls.  The members are so happy to have it, before they would just pull out some mats and sit on the ground.  Now we have 40 chairs out there and a chalkboard for the class.  We were able to get 10 copies of the Sunday School teaching book in Fijian, so now we can actually teach a class. Our newly ordained unit President came to church and the only other two Priesthood brethren came to church also.  We taught them how to bless and pass the sacrament, so we’re starting to get some functionality out there, so in a few months if the Elders didn't come to church they would be able to still have a little Sacrament meeting.

We went out to some of our less-active members’ way out in the middle of nowhere and the little pick-ups we have barely made it, ha.  No cars had been there for what looked like years but one thing we were told is to not worry too much about the trucks, but worry about the people we need to visit, but still be smart but don't let the roads hold us back, haha.  So that’s exactly what we did and it was a blast, ha.

That Chief out in the Koro/village is still waiting for us to get out there and visit him so he can be baptized, so that is our main priority this week. We are also just gonna go look for service opportunities out in the villages and do some work for them, then hopefully we can get into some huts and get teaching.  Ha, I'm so stoked to be back out and getting sweaty and dirty, it’s the best place to do missionary work in the world because it so different.  We have to do some crazy stuff just to teach people and I'm way excited for it.

We'll be Skyping on my Monday  (for Christmas), so Sunday there.  I reserved the place from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, so you can figure out what time that will be there.

Send my love to Grandpa Ed as well, I know everything that happens will happen how it’s supposed to, and that everything will be fine.

Love you all.

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Hanke

He does seem to sound much better, really upbeat; so grateful for that!

And yes, of course I asked him a few times how he was feeling, but no, I obviously didn’t get an answer.  Guess we’ll have to go with the “no new is good news” theory. (Although I’m not much of a believer in that at all! Didn’t work out so well for us as far as the mission goes, but I’ll try to keep the faith that he is doing much better.)

Now, on to the anticipation of the long-awaited “Best Christmas Present Ever”!!!  J

Happy Holidays!

Doing well...

Friday afternoon I was at work when up popped an email from Elder Hanke, what a surprise!  So here’s a modified version of our chat, which will have to suffice as the weekly email:

Nova Scotia, are you there?

Yup, what are you doing?

Our  P-day is today because we go to Suva this weekend and next week for a  mission tour.

Hmmmmm, this is where I will start editing my responses because when I read them now I sound like an incessant, overbearing mother.  (Not sure why my replies would come across like that??  And Kyndra, please don’t respond to that comment.)  J   I basically asked how he was feeling, and what was going on... in my typical, overly-verbose manner.

I'm feeling way better every day, ha, my comp. doesn't have to do everything for me anymore!  I’ve got my big boy pants back on, haha, and it feels goooooood, ya!  Sorry, I forgot to tell you last week that P-day was today .

How are you doing?

Let’s see, I may have asked him just a few more questions about how he’s feeling, if he’s eating well, if he had any stories to tell us….

No stories yet still, just chillin’, but just less than usual. But ya next week I'll be back out and it will be like it never happened.

My response:  How have you really been feeling?  How are your legs? Are you eating well? (Can’t I just get some specific answers?)

We go to Suva on Sunday and come back Thursday, so it should be a dang good time.  And I feel fine, seriously, just can't walk that far yet but no worries.

And one other thing if you send a Flip (video recorder) don't send it in its packaging, send it just in some case or something and if you have to put the value declared on the package slip don't put the real amount just say 20 dollars or something because if it is a lot then it costs a lot to get out of the post office. (Trust me on this one it was my job to deal with this before.)

Thought I'd give it one more shot to see if I could get some answers…   Also told him he should be writing in his journal!

That’s why I want the Flip so bad, it will be easier and I will get more info in less time and it will be funny, too.

I gotta go now,  I'll talk to you in a week.

Love you mom, say hi to everyone for me.

Peace and Blessings,

Luvemuni

(I can’t seem to find out what this word means in English!)

So, that’s it for this week, but at least all seems to be good.  I suppose that if they are letting him travel for the mission conference/Christmas party, that he must be recuperating well.  (I guess I'll have to accept the fact that he was allowed to travel as the answer to all of my questions.) 

I happened to run in to our Stake President and one of his counselors in church today.  They both stopped to ask how Garrett is doing, although neither of them knew what had been going on with his health.  They both happen to be doctors, so I was able to run everything past them and get their opinions, which was great.  They said that there shouldn't be any long-term issues from the cellulitis, and that once Gar is all healed he should be fine. (This has been a big concern of mine, so I was happy to hear this from both of them.)

I can’t even express how grateful we are for all of the thoughts and prayers in Garrett's behalf.  He seems to be doing much better….which is such a huge blessing, as well as a huge relief. 

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season!

Love to all,

Nova

Seriously, everything here is fine.  My leg is getting better every day and it will just take time. I don't have athlete’s foot, ha, so honestly I don't know what it’s from, but whatever it is it’s getting taken care of. And as far as my teeth, haha, I understand where you’re coming from, but believe me, no worries there, and unless the pain comes back I'm not gonna get a root canal in Fiji (ha, that sounds like a death sentence in Labasa, ha). But all in all no worries, it’s all good over here.

As far as what I have been doing....nothing, in order to heal the fastest way they told me to just rest as much as possible. But honestly I'm super tired of resting but I don't really have a choice, ha. This also means that I don't really have any stories or anything for you but someday they will come again.

I will tell you though a bit about what has been happening while I've been out of the work. When I came here we covered both the Labasa branch and a unit in Naduna of about 50 members. Now there are more missionaries here and they will take over the Labasa branch mostly and we will take Naduna along with some other villages around Labasa. I'm really stoked to get back at it because this area, mainly Naduna, is the next big spot for the church in Fiji.  It is the next spot where they want to put a chapel, and if the area can get like 50 baptisms in the next year and start organizing the Priesthood it will happen, so me and Elder Seila have a lot on our plate.  There is a chief in one of the villages who is interested in the church and he will be very vital because if we can convert him then it will open the doors of a lot more homes and that baptism goal will be reachable. So what I get from this is that if we go and work our tails of helping these people then this area will be much different in a year and the people here will be greatly blessed because of the facilities provided for them. Elder and Sister Muir, the senior couple, have really let us know how much is on our shoulders here now so it’s really sweet, I'm stoked for this chance.

As for other news there is a new senior couple in Labasa, the Terry's, they are really cool and have helped me a lot, she made us a bunch of different cookies yesterday and they are really excited to put some fat on me. She promised us one good American meal a week here so I'm really excited for that. So our dinner list just got much more exciting. Other than that I don't really know much more to say.

I’ll just end with saying sorry again, ha, each week I just told myself, "No worries I'll be fine by next week", so my bad on that one. I would also like to say thank you for not freakin’ out too bad, Mom, I'm glad Dad can keep you calm, ha, he's probably the only one. Anyways thanks again for the support and I just want to say that Gospel is true and God has a plan for everything and needless to say I did really learn a lot about me and my comp. while I was down so it just reassures me of that fact that He knows every one of us.

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Hanke

Well…. sounds like he’s getting his spunk back, doesn’t it? What a huge blessing, as well as a huge relief.  Dr. Burton called this afternoon to report that Garrett had been released from the hospital on Friday after five days of IV antibiotics and tests. He said he had just talked to Garrett before he called me, and reported that he was still in good spirits and starting to get around a bit.  He said Garrett told him he is really getting his appetite back and is anxious to put some weight back on.

Just in case you can’t tell, I lectured Gar a bit about being sure to take good care of himself (i.e. brushing, flossing, taking care of his feet, etc.), so we all get to read the specific responses (I know, a little gross, huh?).  I also mentioned that it wouldn’t hurt for him to ask his companion to send a little email to his Mom should the need ever arise again.

 We’re so grateful for the blessings received, and that Garrett is recovering well.  Thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts and prayers for Garrett, as well as for the moral support.  We are so blessed to have such great family and friends.

Have a great week everyone!