Nov 22, 2010

Hey mom!

this week has been crazy. I'll tell you about it but first I'm going to answer some questions. i got your Thanksgiving package! it was pretty awesome there was a lot of food and stuff in it. I'm definitely going to be eating all of it over the course of this next week. I'm glad to hear that your having thanksgiving with the Renteria's. its always fun when they come over. I still don't really know what I'm doing. were going over to members homes i think and eating. oh that member family i told you about who was from Gilbert and the mom went to Westwood, i don't know there names. i met them when i was on exchange in Monroe. I was there for a day and a a half, and i forgot there names. sorry. about the Christmas tree, you don't need to send one ha ha! were all thinking about buying a cheap 20 dollar tree to put in our apartment. I'm also looking forward to Christmas, to calling you.i still don't know how this phone call is going to work out. ...so i think were going to a members house to make the call. sometime in December I'm going to send a Christmas package to you guys. i think youl like it.

...Also this week my bike broke again! Ahh! so i have to take it into the bike shop and get it fixed. but i wont be able to do it this week because of money. next week we get "paid" again so I'm taking it in then. on the 29th we have zone conference again and this time its in Shreveport! I'm pretty excited to go to Shreveport! were only there for a day though. oh on a side note, last night we were at a members house and the amazing race was on. i was like, i bet my family is watching this right now. they were like in India or Brazil or something. anyway it was just cool thinking that "somewhere out there my family is watching this exact same thing" ha ha! anyway i just thought i would mention that. so ya that's been my week, write back soon and thanks for the packages! Bye!

love hank

PS tell aj to email me back haha

Part of letter to John:

Hey I just got your letter. the familiy that we are teaching are not from arizona. the people i met who were from arizona is a completly diffrent family. hes from new mexico and shes from texas. hes not a member and she is. its going really good. they came to church twice now and things are looking good. they have 3 kids and the oldest is 3. shes pregnant with her fourth right now.

 

about the harry potter movies. i heard that part 1 was really good. im going to definantly see it when i get back. so megamind was good? i was at the comic con panels for both harry potter and megamind and i wanted to see them both. how was it?

 

this week i also, my bike got busted again. i dont know how it happened. im taking it into the bike shop next week when we get "paid" again. ive only had the bike for a month and a half and i already have to fix it twice. anyway thats been about it, moms letter is my big detailed letter to the familiy, so theres alot more info about my week in there. bye!

love hank

 

Nov. 16, 2010

Hank's emails for the week...this one came to me:

Hey mom!

I just got read your email! let me first update you for whats going on. transfers were this week. sorry i forgot to mention to you that they were coming up. all four of us are staying in west monroe again. the next transfer day is december 28th. so that means that were all staying for the holidays! i get to call on christmas so thats going to be pretty exciting. anyway this week was pretty good. the familiy that were teaching their names are Josh and Sandra Valencia. Sandra is a memebr but Josh isnt. we tought him the 1st and 2nd lessons. then we got a baptisimal date for him. so things are going good with them. they are our top investigators right now. the rest of the time was just trying to figure out what to do.

so your freaking out because of carbon monoxide poisioning! haha, thats prety funny! you can send the detector thing if you want, ill use it. i know it will proboly make you feel better! well i got only 1 letter this week by mail. it was from the bishopric. i think that the rest of the letters are being held up at the mission home. my companions tell me that they do that sometimes. when we get our mail we have like a ton of letters. 

oh this week we went to waffle house for the first time in my life! i actually really enjoyed it! we ate waffles and hamburgers! 

so thats pretty much it. seriously not alot of thigs happened this week. thats been abput it. next week is thanksgiving and i dont know what were doing. oh and the reason why im writing today and not yesterday is because transfer day is pday. and today is transfer day. so yah ill write back on monday! thanks for all the letters and write back soon! and tell aj to email me back! bye!

love hank

This one came to John:

 

Hey Dad!

hey sorry i didnt write yesterday. its because yesterday wasnt pday, today is. on transfer days are the pdays for that week. i cant belive that great grandma jackson is 98! i wonder if shel make it to 100! thanks for keeping me updated. and also im so glad that you made the sale! i was a little nervous as if you were actually going to make it or not. so this media refferal is really good. its Josh and Sandra Valencia. Sandra is a member and Josh is not. we taught the first 2 lessons and then i extended a baptisimal date. i was so nervous to ask but he accepted so its all good. thats pretty much what's been going on with them.

.....anyay thanks for writing, hopfully on monday i can write a longer letter. oh and i got the bishopric letter, it made me feel good that you wrote somthing in it. anyway ill write back on monday! thanks bye!

love hank

And then I got this one from Hank as a P.S.  (I had written him, and told him that our dog, Juliet, has lost about 15 pounds since Hank left.  She's either sick, or it's because Hank isn't here to sneak her food anymore!  We actually think it's Hank not feeding her junk food anymore!  --I'll take her in to the vet just in case-- So this is in response to that....)

hey! i read this is funny! i only fed her a little bit i promise! haha, im glad to know that shes losing weigh though!

Pictures!

Hank sent us his SD card today to download his pictures.  He is such a funny guy!  There were 208 pictures on the card, from the MTC up to last week, and in the letter, he included a list of every single picture, and a description of them.  It was six and 1/2 pages of descriptions!  And apparantly I'm very predictable.  I decided to download the pictures on our computer, and caption each picture with Hank's description.  I just thought it would be a great way to document his words.  Jonna came in as I was working on it, and said "I called it, Mom!  I called it!!"  I had no idea what she was talking about, and then she went on to explain that when she got home from work, John was home, and had shown Jonna Hank's six and 1/2 page list of photo descriptions.  Apparantly Jonna told John "What do you want to bet that when mom gets home, she spends the afternoon putting in every single description on the computer???"  Ok, so I'm predictable.  

 The following captions are exactly as Hank described. 

 

Me and Elder Clark (MTC Companion)

My district at Temple.  (MTC)








The exact same bunkbed I had at home. (Mission Home- first night in Mississippi)

 

 

Me about to go to bed in Mission Home.






A lake that becomes a swamp.  (Lisa's Note:  I LOVE this picture- taken in Louisiana)

 





A street we tracted on.







Swamp





Grass next to freeway.  Crazy!!  (Only from an Arizonian!)



Me with clock at 10:10 PM.  (It was 10/10/10 at 10:10 PM)

Elder Belden really happy about 10:10 PM

Micky Mouse Ave.  I thought of Jonna when I saw this so I took a picture.



The bike trail by Ouchita River. 




The bridge opened up.




West Monroe tap water.  You can see the color difference against a white background.




A road we were tracting.




Cow tongue.  You can see the taste buds on it.




Elder Belden at the Ouchita River.




Me and Elder Boliander holding the damaged part on our bikes.  (Their bikes were damaged when the bike rack broke off the back of their car while driving, and fell onto the road).




On our way to Bro. Clark's house.







Nov. 8, 2010

Part of the email we got from Hank today, and we also got a letter in the mail today, with his SD card.  I decided to write a little part of his hand-written letter in this post as well.  Not the entire letter, just one paragraph that I thought was neat. 

Part of the E-mail written Nov. 8, 2010:
Hey mom!

"....My Sunday went pretty good, it was a normal testimony meeting, but something happened that I've never seen before.  Right when they said, "the time is now yours" this lady stood up in the congregation and bore her testimony. It's not a big deal but I'm just not used to that. I get why this is called the bible belt now. I'm not even kidding there is literally a church on every street! there is this HUGE first baptist church that i want to get a picture of! this baptist church is about as big as 2-3 of our stake centers put together! I'm not even kidding! By our apartment there are about 4 churches standing right next to each other. There's the Pentecostal church building, then the Baptist church building, then the Methodist church building, then 1 more I forgot what its called. its crazy! And we have like 1 tiny building in west Monroe. the ward roster still needs to be fixed and we slowly are updating it better. but it has a long way to go. Monroe is literally right next to West Monroe. It's divided by the Ouchita river. its like mesa and Tempe. there almost the same city. i sent a letter in the mail with my SD card a few days ago, did you get it yet? I talked about me and Renshaw during the splits. and also i have a ton of pictures. There's another paper in there with numbers and descriptions. they talk a little about each picture i took. and they're in order, so i hope you all understand how to use it, haha.

....The only thing that happened this week is a media referral that we got that went great! there is this couple... they have 3 kids. The oldest is 3 and she is pregnant with her 4th. The husband is not a member but she is. They just moved from Texas. We taught the 1st lesson and it went great! This week were going over again. They're our top investigators right now. That been pretty much it. i know that there are a few more things that i haven't answered yet, sorry. just ask them again and ill answer them haha. well im glad to hear that things are going well back home.... ill let you know what I'm doing as Thanksgiving gets closer. thanks for writing and write back soon! bye!

love hank

Part of the Letter received Nov. 8, 2010 in the mail:
Hey family! What's up?!  Hey, sorry my letters were all short on Monday.  All of my companions were in a hurry so I had to rush.  Sorry I didn't write back Jonna and Jeri!  I'm going to hopefully write you all back on Monday again. 

This week has been cool for the most part.  I went on exchange with Renshaw and we were in Monroe.  We taught 2 lessons that we feel went pretty good.  But then it got all dark and stormy so we decided to go visit members in the far side of Monroe.  None of the members could visit.....

...Dinner went great!  The dad at the appointment (I forgot his name) grew up in Gilbert and his mom went to Westwood!  It was cool talking to someone about that.  After dinner we headed back home, and then the exchange ended the next morning.

...It's going great out here, and I'll write you back on Monday!  Bye! 
Love, Hank

Nov. 1. 2010

Excerpt of email from Hank.  He has also been writing a lot of hand-written letters each week.  I haven't been putting his hand-written letters on the blog, it takes a lot of time to do.  In this excerpt he's answering some of my questions, about what his days are like, what his ward is like.  It sounds like what a big part of what their work entails, is finding and re-connecting with members who have lost touch, re-activating, etc.  He also has written about some of the things they've done on their P-Days.  He and his companion and the other Elders have taken their bikes onto some trails along the river, and have seen some beautiful country.  Hank loves it!   After he sends his SD card, I'll post some more pictures.

 

 

"....today I'm actually going on exchange with Elder Renshaw for today and tomorrow.  I come back Wednesday. I'm going to be in Monroe, Louisiana for the next 2 days....oh i got your letters last week! some of those rim pictures are actually pretty scary, i surprised none got hurt. oh and about our ward not a lot of people come. I counted yesterday to see how many people actually came. about 60- 70 people came. and the ward boundaries covers 3-4 cities. there really isn't that big of a youth program. The majority of the ward is adults and little kids. There's not a lot of youth."

 

love hank

 

PS sorry this letter is so short, my companions are all done writing and want to leave. ill write back alot more in hand letters.