Well, I’ve been a little behind again…. Sorry everyone!  Enjoy these letters, sounds like he is doing well.  Thanks to everyone for your love and support.

Happy Holidays!

December 3, 2012

Sorry sometimes I just get kinda bored when I e-mail and I cant take it, haha, sorry.

Anywho the week went really well we have seen some great success our investigator Keana passed her interview and she will be getting baptized on Thursday which we’re stoked for.

Bill is doing great as well with him it takes a long time to teach and commit him to do things because he is sooo old so teaching him is like putting the lessons on slow mode, haha, he's doing great though.

Beta and Sita are also doing good. We haven’t seen them in  quite a while but we have talked to them several times on the phone. Sita had surgery again in LA this past week but from what we know she is recovering really well and Beta said that she will be up and playing around again in no time at all.

What else happened this week…. The whole time I have been covering the Branch there has been this Part Member family that I have been trying my butt off to get in contact with and we finally did on Saturday which is sooo sweeet and he is as cool as everyone said he was so I’m very excited. I’m going over to his house in a week or so for some curry which I’m really lookin forward to, haah.

 Anywhobewhaty

Peace and blessings,

Elder Tavoi

December 12, 2012

Bula Bula Bula,

The week was awesome......

Keana's baptism was way good everything went good. We received her as a referral from one of our members a bit ago, she was solid and we dunked her very quickly.

We also received another referral this week, one of our member’s mothers. she is 75 and very prepared by the Lord.  She doesn't speak English so it was my first whole lesson In Fijian since getting here which felt sooo good. We taught her two lessons this week and invited her to be baptized on Dec. 29 and she accepted so we are pumped around here and feeling super blessed.

And as for the people I mentioned last week, Amini , we have our dinner with him a week from today which will be good, he is way sick and we are hoping to get him to come to church. Also Beta and Sita made it here yesterday for church which was good. Sita looks better and better each time I see her which is sweet. And Bill is also doing well he cancelled the lesson for this week but we talked to him on the phone and he said he threw out his back so we'll have to see him later haha and yes you are correct it will be a long term project with him but eventually he will get baptized.

That’s pretty much it from here.  Other cool things this week, there was a huge wedding and our Tongan Stake’s Christmas songfest which went awesome and made me gain like 5 more pounds haha.

Peace and blessings,

Elder  Hanke

Continued thoughts and prayers are with Diana… and with Jeff and the kids.  We love you!

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!) 

Bula bula,

The weeks are going by soooo fast,  I honestly cannot believe that it is Monday already the week wasn’t even that good but it still went by fast haha.

Each week Beta and Sita go south a bit to a city called Gilroy which is way too far for us to drive there, so we can’t meet them unless they come down here and they haven’t done that for two weeks now so there is really no update on them. I’ve texted with Beta a little to check on them a bit and they said that they are good and they miss us and that hopefully they will make it next week. They are super special just their whole experience of being able to come to America and  makr such good friends here who introduced them to us.  I’m just so grateful for the opportunity to teach them and get to know them.

Other big news that happened this week- on Thursday nights we teach a PMG missionary class to the young men and we have a blast but this week while we were there I bent over to pick something up and all I heard was a bust then I felt a nice breeze on my bahooki haha. I blew out the my pants, haha so we had to run home and change then come back, haha classic . But other than that it was a good time we had each of them bring some ingredients and then we made meatloaf, haha it actually turned out really good and it wasn’t too big of a mess. But like I said before I love the young men, I love jokin around with them and they are all awesome here. And then on Saturday we got permission to go and watch one of our young men play in his football game. They got wooped but he did really good, he’s a stud.

What else....we saw Bill again this week and he said that he would come to church but he never made it and we still don’t know why so that was a bummer.  He is such a sweet old man and he is way stinkin hilarious as well.

  

That’s pretty much it from here hope you all have a good week.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

Here’s another sweet email that I got from MaryTagilala on Friday.  It’s a huge comfort knowing that she seems to be Garrett’s “Fijian Mama” in Cali – what a blessing she is!

Hi Nova :),

We just had dinner with your Elder Hanke and his companion Elder Chapman this evening. They are a joy to have in our Ward and are a blessing to us out here. We love them both. Elder Hanke is well. We look after him like he is our very own :). We hope to keep him here for a long time :). Thank you for raising such a fine young Missionary to serve the Lord. You should be so proud of him :).

Much love,

Mary :)

She also sent this picture – yea!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kyndra, Sharly, Easton, Krista, Grandma Von, Kynlee… hope I didn’t miss anyone!J

Continued thoughts and prayers with Diana, Jeff and those cute 5 K’s.

Hope everyone has a great week – so grateful for all of our family and friends!

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

Bula bula bula,

So this week has been pretty interesting we have done a lot of good work lately and we are seeing some of the blessings come from that, I’m pumped.

A couple months ago we received a referral from some other missionaries about a young man and we tried like 20 times to contact him but to no avail then this week they asked us again if we had met him and since we hadn't they were all like what the crap, go baptize him and all we could say was we would if he would talk to us. Haha, well long story short we ended up catching him at home and because something was wrong with our phone we hadn't been receiving his texts but he had received ours, hah, so he was always thinkin that we were just too busy to meet so that’s why we hadn't replied.  So we were just both mixed up and way off but now we’re on the right track and we have a lesson on Wednesday which should be good. And then hopefully get him baptized and saved here sometime soon.

Other than that we have been trying to do a lot of less active work and we have come in contact with some people recently that have been lost for quite some time now and I know as soon as they feel the spirit again in their lives that we will be able to help them see again and realize the blessings that come from living the gospel.

Which brings me to my last topic, haha. Last week on Monday we visited with one of our less active members, he’s the type who has all of these problems with the church and how it’s run and has all these ideas of how it could be better.  I would like to relay to you some of what I learned just from sitting down with him. A couple things that he brought up were the new missionary age and the Word of Wisdom.  About the age he said "I think it’s a horrible idea" (about the age for men), and "it’s about time the brethren realize the women can do stuff too" (about the age for sisters). And then about the Word of Wisdom which he doesn't follow by drinking coffee he said "I don't feel the Spirit but do you really think it is that simple, just giving up coffee?". May I try and offer some advice that has sort of struck home to me: The Book of Mormon. This book was translated by divine powers, and within its pages we can learn a couple things, 1-that Jesus is the Christ and that we must follow his gospel, and 2-God works the same yesterday, today and forever. He calls prophets to show us, His children, the way to eternal life. If this is understood, and we begin to walk by faith in a world governed by sight we will feel His heaven-sent influence in our lives and we can have the sure understanding that doesn't come from any other source but God Himself, a sure understanding that he loves and cares for us, and that His son died for all of us and that if we follow His plan for us we CAN LIVE WITH HIM AGAIN. So if we will humble ourselves and let go of the pride that we carry in our hearts and have a true desire to know, then read and pray about the Book of Mormon, we will know. Then all doubts will fly and all desires to do what man wants us to do will disappear. Another comment this man had was this, "science has proven, that we need two things in life in order to be happy, one, some close relationships with other humans and two, something good to look forward to." God has provided those things long before science was ever established. He gives us our family relationships as well as an opportunity to have a relationship with Him, and He has also given us something to look forward to, life after this one, a perfect life free from sorrow and pain and sickness. He sends prophets to deliver this message, and what is the prophet’s declaration today? Love at Home.

I love this gospel, I love the feeling I get when sharing it, I love the feeling I get when I live it.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke 

Thoughts and prayers with Diana… and Jeff… and those 5 K’s. J

What’s up, Bula Bula Bula

Some crazy awesome news, as well as not so awesome, so thanks for it, haah.

Anywhobiwhatey, our week was pretty crazy, no updates on those people other than, we didn’t get to see them.

We did quite a bit of work with less actives and then just enjoyed Conference. And what a time it was, I love conference on the mish.  So it’s like taking an adrenaline shot of inspiration, I learned so much and felt the spirit so strong.

I only have time to share one experience this week. so we listened to the talk from Pres. Monson yesterday about following promptings from the Spirit and he always has the best stories about him doing that, well yesterday we had our own like that. This is a testimony to me about how much God really does care about all of us. So yesterday we went to Hayward across the Bay to visit some of our investigators we went and neither of them were home, so we went to visit a less active family that stays in Hayward. We usually don't go because the father works 24/7 and we can’t go in without another man home, but we figured we could just stop by and say hi. Well let me tell you, we showed up and the Dad answered the door which threw me for a loop first then as we came in and started  talking to him and learned that he had just lost his job the day before and that their rent was due in two weeks and about how stressed he was over the whole situation until he watched Conference.  While watching it he had a good feeling come over him just letting him know that everything would be alright, and then when we showed up he said it was like a seal of approval for him, knowing that God was watching out for him and letting him know that he knows exactly what each person is going through and will send help. We were able to testify to him that God prompted us to go there because He knew what he needed.  I’m very grateful for moments like these on my mission, they are a great strength and I hope all others can follow the same promptings and then feel the same feelings of gratitude and love as I have come to feel.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

I have to presume the "not so awesome news" was BYU's win over Utah State - that was a bummer! 

Enjoyed Conference this weekend, below is a quote from one of my favorite talks.  :)

Bula Bula,

So for the week, haha finally.

We had a pretty good time that’s for sure haha, let me tell you about Tuesday.

I went on exchanges with another Elder from my district in downtown Frisco on a bike. Haha i have sooo much respect for those guys it’s some pretty tough cookin up and down those hills, especially when i was on a bike made for someone 10 inches shorter than me and about 80 pounds lighter, haha! We had to tighten the brakes a couple times because that sucker just wasn't gunna stop me goin down those hills, haha. But anywho, that’s the least of the worries they have there.  The people are so full of Prop. 8 that really nobody wants to talk to us. There are very few occasions when someone will talk to us and it’s usually to yell at us and tell us all the things they think is wrong with what we are doing and why they don't believe mixed in with some cuss words and some waving of hands. It'll be a good story for the grandkids though for sure, haha.  And at least I’m not getting punched in the face like Isaac, haha.

That was definitely the highlight of the week for sure and other than that it went pretty slow besides the weekend. We didn’t get to see Bill or Michelle this week so that was a bummer, hopefully we can set something up this week though, that would be good. We did a bunch of finding as they call it, or just spending time each day to find new people to teach which wasn’t very successful at all haha. Another day in the life.

 And as for the weekend it was boss!  So we went to the eating at around 5 knowing that if it was supposed to start by 4 then the food wouldn't show up until 5 but we were wrong it came at 5:30 and (Elder) Chapman and I got sucked into spending a couple hours preparing it to be served.  And you know how it is in the Polynesian Community, everyone doesn't just get a slice of pineapple, they each get a whole one to themselves, so prepping food for that many people can take a little bit of time. But oh boy was it worth it!  We ate sooo good, I think I gained five pounds right there. So much good stuff, haha, can’t wait until the next one.

Other than that everything here is the same. Thanks a bunch for the package, the cups are sweet. All I gotta say is they  (USU) better beat BYU or else I’m doomed.

Peace and blessings,

Elder Hanke

Here are a few explanations…

 “At least I’m not getting punched in the face like Isaac” = Garrett has a friend serving a mission in Russia, who happened to get in the middle of an escalated conversation and – you got it – he got punched in the face.

The “eating” (Poly talk) was a huge meal held after a missionary farewell in the Fijian Branch last Sunday.  The girl leaving on the mission is the daughter of the very sweet lady that will email me once in a while with updates on and pictures of Garrett.  She sent a couple of emails yesterday – very sweet, as always – and included pictures, which I’ve added below.

We sent Gar some USU cups that we got at a football game… so I’m sure the pressure is on, because I think that all of the Poly’s in the Bay Area are serious BYU fan.  USU and BYU play this weekend… go Aggies! 

Hope everyone is doing well, we love you all!  Continued thoughts and prayers are with Di, Jeff, and the kids.

Elder Hanke, Sister Sherry Tagilala, and Elder Chapman

 Elder Hanke and Elder Chapman supervising?

(Not sure if Gar has a sucker in his mouth, but I'm pretty sure he's drooling over the food.)

And now... time for the "eating". (And eating, and more eating!)