Feb. 28, 2011

Email to Lisa:
hey whats up?! well this week was good, we had 2 baptisms on Saturday, they went really good, R____ and Z____got baptised. they have been investigation the church for a while now, they had these baptism dates set before i even got to Vicksburg, it was cool because this was my first baptism so far! it was cool, me and Mc went to the church way before to set up and fill the water up, but guess what the water was Brown! haha can you believe it?! i was like, "uhh the waters brown" Mc_____ is like, "this isn't as bad as some other water I've seen" man i don't get it but the water I've seen in the south so far is brown! but the baptism still went well, nobody cared that the water was brown, ill send some pictures! it went really good and the next day R_____ was confirmed and were going to confirm Z_____ next week because he was sick on Sunday so he didn't make it to church. well it was pretty cool and now we have one more baptism coming up on April 9th and it looks like its going to work out, but Mc is going to be home by that time. i was thinking that I'm going to be in Vicksburg for a awhile but who knows, I've been wrong before. well that was like the big highlight of the week, most of the other stuff that happened was in the first half of last week, and i emailed on Wednesday so you already know about that. well that's it for now, ill talk to you next week, bye!
love hank
Email to John:
.....well this week was pretty cool we had 2 baptisms on Saturday and it went really good, R____and Z____ got baptised! it was really good and we have another one coming up in on April 9th, hopefully it goes good! that was like the big highlight this week, today we are headed down to Clinton for pday and also its Elder Mc birthday! so were going to celebrate it today! well that's cool that Taylor is finally leaving! so the sacrament meeting had like 500 people? wow that's crazy! i don't think I've seen that much! well that's all for this week, ill talk to you next week, bye!
love hank

Carla's story about prayer, and Hank's reply. Feb 28, 2011.

The following is a story I shared with Hank in my email to him this morning:
"I have to tell you an interesting experience this past week. Take it as you will...but what touched me most, was the faith of a little child, in this case, Carla.
Last Sunday (not yesterday), after we got home from church, Carla came in to my room pretty distraught, and said Juliet's eyes were looking real bad. I went in the kitchen, and her right eye was almost completely closed, very goopy looking, and her other eye was very goopy and looked mangled a bit. Almost like she'd been in a dog fight. ...Carla was pretty upset, and had a hard time looking at her. I explained that it's probably a symptom of her blindness, and that we could still love her, and get used to her this way. This was upsetting to Carla. She just couldn't look at her. That night while I was doing dishes, she came up to me and said "Mom...I said a prayer. For Juliet." I asked her what she prayed about, and she said "that her eyes will get better." My heart kind of sank, really...Hank. I thought in my head "Oh, Carla....her eyes are only going to get worse". But I didn't say that, I said "Carla...we'll see. It's all up to the Lord, and what He thinks is best." She was adamant, Hank, that her eyes would look better soon.
The next day, we got up, and Carla went to see Juliet. BOTH eyes looked normal again, Hank. BOTH! I was stunned. I learned a lesson that day, about having faith. Carla was ecstatic, and reminded me several times, that she'd said a prayer, and knew Juliet would look better. It was really something. I don't know if that sounds silly to you...coincidence, etc. But regardless...your little sister had, and has a ton of faith, and I realized I need to have more myself....Juliet's doing GREAT, though...so don't worry. She has gotten along very well, and if she never sees again, she'll be fine."

Hank's reply:
...well Juliet is getting better? man i really hope that this all works out, I don't think that it was a coincidence with Carla. I really think that Carla really helped out. Let me know how this home remedy thing works out. I think that everything will be alright. well that's it for now thanks again for everything, bye!
love hank

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011

Excerpts from a couple of emails from Hank today...
hey well I'm finally writing back now, haha! as you know the library was closed on Monday so i wasn't able to write home on Monday. now yesterday we had a zone conference in Clinton, and man was it long. it lasted from like 9:30 am to like 5 o'clock pm! by the time we got back (30 minute drive from Clinton to Vicksburg) library was closed. so we had to do it today. well this week has been pretty good. last week i went to Clinton on exchange with the zone leaders, and it was cool. we actually went to Jackson too for part of the day. so now i can officially say that i "served" in Jackson, haha! so yah the temple is most likely going to be in Clinton, but will probably be called the Jackson Mississippi temple. Clinton is just outside of Jackson. Elder Mc was telling me that about a year ago, the guy who is in charge of temples came down here and looked at a sight in Clinton and said it would be a great spot for a temple. Mississippi has 4 stakes right now, and he said when it gets 5 stakes then they will put a temple in it. so right now the goal is to split the Jackson stake into 2 stakes. i think in the near future a temple will be announced, but i think ill be home by the time it happens.
 Anyway this week was cool, oh by the way i did meet the RS president of Vicksburg, her name was sister finch (it's actually Finn), i think. she found me and told me that she had a friend in Oregon who knew you, (Julie Slack from Ventura) and said that she had to keep an eye out for me, haha! so yah it was pretty cool. on Monday we went around Vicksburg "relic hunting" for old civil war artifacts with a medal detector. we didn't find anything but he wants to go out again next week. in the past he said that hes found around 250,000 dollars worth of old civil war artifacts used in the battle of Vicksburg. he showed us alot of them too, he showed us like 6 belt buckles that he found (4 of them Union, 2 of them Confederate) and a badge and some other stuff too. its pretty cool, looking at the military park. anyway lets hope that next week we have better luck.
This week me and my companion had some food called "menudo". menudo is cow stomach. it was so cool! anyway i thought i should tell you that! I'm way excited to try chitlins but haven't had the opportunity yet. ill let you know when i do. oh and bye the way i did get my GPS, its a garmin 4 inch screen and it works great! thanks again! oh and we have 2 baptisms this Saturday, R____ and Z____, so its pretty exciting! well that's it for now, ill talk to you next week, bye!
love hank

PS tell A.J. I'm sorry that he didn't make the volleyball team

(part of email to John today...)

....well how are things going back home, its hard to believe that everybody is leaving on their missions now, its pretty cool. well this week was alright, I went to Clinton last week on exchange and it was cool, i enjoyed being in a different area, Vicksburg is cool, I'm starting to get used ti it better. its cool looking at the monuments and stuff about the civil war, i haven't taken pictures yet because my batteries are dead, so I'm going to get some more. yah the battle of Vicksburg was a big battle. i remember hearing about it in history class but i didn't pay much attention to it. but now that I'm actually at Vicksburg, i try and remember the stuff that i learned about it. its cool re-learning stuff about the battle of Vicksburg and i think I'm going to enjoy being here for a while longer. well we have 2 baptisms this week and they look like they are definitely going to hold through. ill tell you about them next week. well that's it for now, ill talk to you next week. bye!

love hank

Valentines Day, Feb. 14, 2011

hey! well Ive been in Vicksburg for about a week now, and its pretty cool for the most part. i love all the historic stuff about it and seeing the Mississippi river a lot and the artifacts on display and stuff but I'm still going to have to get used to it. its pretty cool though, it actually snowed this week and we had a snowball fight and it was fun! the snow lasted on the ground for a few days but now its all melted. oh and something funny happened this week too! well you know how you sent me some maple syrup? well i found it, haha!* OK the big case of e-mergen-C, i thought that it was full of e-mergen-C, like you guys sent me like a year supply of it,haha! Well i decided to open it and i found the maple syrup! haha I'm going to have to get more Bisquick though because i ate it all! thank you again for the syrup! real maple syrup is so good! (*Note: We sent Hank some Bisquick and real maple syrup for Christmas...but he said he never got the syrup! We'd packed it real good because it was glass, and had packed it in a Costco size box of "Emer-gen-C".  haha.  This makes me laugh, that he thought we'd sent him a years supply!  Glad the mystery is solved, because I thought I'd lost my mind...wondering why he got the rest of the stuff we'd sent for Christmas, but no syrup! We sent them all together! Just couldn't figure it out!)

well this transfer we are probably going to get 3 baptisms. before i got here, Elder Mc and his companion were working with these people and set them up with baptism dates so its pretty cool. their names are R___, Z____ and A____. Z is getting baptised this week and R next week and A in march. So that's what we have going on this transfer. Mc is a cool guy and I'm going to get along with him this transfer.

I'm glad things are going good back home for the most part, that's great that dad is working on 3 more sales! i really hope he gets them! and I'm glad that California was cool! i cant wait to go back to California on our family trip! well i hope Juliet gets better, is she doing good? its not super serious right? do you think that this insulin will help her eyesight and health? i hope shes doing OK.

well i like it here so far, but i do miss my last area from time to time. i keep telling myself that i have to move on and that everybody does this. well i think that in a few weeks ill feel better about it. well that's pretty much it this week nothing much has really happened, and I'm looking forward to the package your sending! well that's it for now, bye!

love hank

Part of an email to John today:

hey! whats up?! well Vicksburg is pretty cool so far, i do occasionally miss my last area but i have to get over it, i fell like that in a few weeks ill be ok with it. well not much has happened this week, Elder Mc is a cool guy he wants to join the air force when he goes home. i really like him. well today I'm going on exchanges and I'm going to be in Clinton, Mississippi for the next few days. I'm excited to go there. i heard that when a temple will be built in Mississippi eventually, it would be in Clinton because i heard that an area in Clinton has already been inspected for a possible temple a few years ago. well yah I'm pretty excited to see a new part of Mississippi. well that's pretty much it for now i hope that you get better, ill talk to you next week. Bye!

love hank

P.S.

i thought that the 5 generation Jackson thing was cool, its hard to believe that there's 5 generations now!** wow anyway i forgot to mention that! bye!

love hank

(**John's sister, Susan is a grandma now, her daughter Jessicca had a baby last week, first Grandchild on the Jackson side.  His Grandma, Thelma Jackson, is still living at 98 years old...and so he mentioned to Hank how there are now 5 generations living on the Jackson side.  Pretty amazing!)

First email from Hank at his new area, Vickburg, Mississippi

hey I'm in Vicksburg Mississippi now! OK when we drove over the Mississippi river, Its Huge! looking down it on the bridge is awesome! it is so wide! anyway ill be seeing it a lot more often now, because Vicksburg is right on the river. its pretty cool. Vicksburg is a really "Hilly" place. the whole city is on hills. its pretty cool and all the building are old looking. today we went to visit an investigator and she lived in this very southern old style building and it was weird driving through the rest of the city. the whole city is like that. its the first time where i actually felt like I'm not in the U.S. its cool though, i don't really know how to describe it. but anyway its pretty cool. my new companion is elder Mc. hes a cool guy and he goes home in 6 weeks, the end of the transfer. so I'm getting a new companion in 6 weeks guaranteed. elder c stayed in west Monroe, he's probably going to stay there until he goes home in may. west Monroe was a good area and i really like the people there and the members were cool, and my companion was awesome. but i guess i had to leave sometime. Vicksburg will probably be my area for a while because usually the 2nd area you're in is usually the longest one. so I'm here and i think ill enjoy it.  

....oh and coca cola was first bottled here in Vicksburg too. there was a big civil war battle fought here and apparently lost the war for the Confederacy. the whole city was a battlefield and theres a few civil war museum's and the soldiers cemetery. ill take alot of pictures while I'm here. well so far i haven't met too many of the members, i met the ward mission leader and he lives like 200 feet away from our apartment.

so yah hes the only member of the ward i met so far. i met one of our investigators this morning like i said already, and it looks like she is going to be baptized this month. the missionaries before me have been working with her for a few months now and like last month or so she finally agreed to baptism. her name is R____. anyway elder mc is a cool guy, he was elder b___ companion last year and really got along with him. so that's a cool thing that me and Mc have in common. hes from Logan, Utah. well that's about it for now. transfers were crazy but now there over with, ill email you next week. hope you enjoy these pictures. alot of them date back to a few months ago, in these ones it has the McDonald's sign that says farmerville, a raccoon in the trash can, and shaquielle o'neals shoes (that i actually wore) . well ill talk to you later bye!

love hank

Pictures!

 Hank only had time to send pictures this week...so his last email is our biggest communication with him on email this week.  But I LOVE getting pictures, they are so telling themselves! He was so excited to send them, that he forgot to send us his new mailing address...so if you want to write him, send it to the Mission Home until we post the new address.  I sent him a Valentine Package yesterday...he'll get it a little late since it's going through the Mission Home, but I think he'll still enjoy it.  They might be out of order...but enjoy the pictures!   

Icicles after the Ice Storm in January 2011.

  

 Hank after finding his Roadkill. Jan. 2011. He looks so proud!  * He didn't eat the one they found in the road.  Only the one a member shot for them.  I don't know which one this is!

Skinning the raccoon.  In their SHIRTS and TIES!!! 

Saying Goodbye to Elder Belden (with the red tie) December 28, 2010. 



Elder Belden and Hank.  (Hank's first companion in the field, they were companions
for 2 1/2 months)

I'm REALLY hoping this isn't the same raccoon they skinned later!  In my perfect world, they let this guy go home to his family.



More icicles. 

One of my favorite pictures.  Elders Wager, Higgins, Cummock and Jackson. The Ouchita River behind them. I think this was taken just before Hank transferred to Vicksburg, MS this past week.

Elder Cummock, and Hank.  (Hank's second companion in the field.) 
Elder Cummock goes home May 2011.



 









Hank was transferred to Vicksburg, Mississippi today, which is right on the Mississippi River!  This is the only email we got from him today.  We're not sure if we'll hear from him until next Monday, or maybe tomorrow.  Regardless...we're assuming he made it safely to Vicksburg, and is settling in to his new area with his new companion.  Until we get his new address, all his mail should go to the Mission Home.  We'll post his new address as soon as we get it. 

Hi Mom!

hey i didn't get your last email, it kind of failed to send it or something. well in case your still wondering I'm not in Vicksburg yet. the guys decided to email first before we get on the transfer van. ill probably get on again at Vicksburg because Elder Mc is probably going to go when i get there. well things are going good I'm pretty excited to leave but I'm very nervous. to tell you the truth I'm very sad to leave west Monroe. its been great and yesterday i said goodbye to alot of people. well that's all for now, ill email back in a few hours. our transfer van is leaving in like 30 minutes. well talk to you soon. bye!

love hank