A year later....

Hank looks like he's standing a little taller a year later...a little more grown up.  Maybe it's just me...my kids don't really see the difference.  But I sure do. 





November 2010



September 2011

Sept 26- General Conference coming up

hey mom thanks for the letter, and the pictures and the package! it was a good package! thanks for the stuff that you sent in it. the pictures you sent were cool, AJ really did have long hair! haha it was awesome! and Jeri and Skyler at homecoming was cool! it was a good picture, same with Carla cheering for Westwood. i really like the one with all the ref's standing there. it was cool. well thanks again for the package, I'm going to eat that conference crunch stuff this week, and were probably going to eat out somewhere after priesthood session. its cool that conference is here again. after this, I'll have 1 more conference left on my mission. pretty cool. and dad said something to me, I'll be home for next October session. awesome! well this week was good, we had zone conference again,  its just sooo long. but it was good though. we haven't seen the nec's this week, but were going to see them this week probably. i haven't seem gator either. there probably just really busy. hopefully we get over there this week. the food down here is great. usually families feed us gumbo and red beans and rice. its pretty good. sometimes they feed us boring food like potatoes and beef because they think we don't want to try southern food, haha! i tell them I'll eat anything you make, I've eaten chitlins, I'm willing to try it all! seafood gumbo and spicy red beans and rice is probably my favorite thing though down here. but fried catfish and craw fish broil are also very good. those four food selections are my favorite thing down here. well mom thanks for the letter, i really enjoy them. I'll talk to you next week, bye!

love hank

hey dad, thanks for the letter, well i got the package you sent this week it was awesome thanks for the stuff you sent in it. grandmas letter was good. I'm glad that things are going good I'll write her a letter this week. the diamondbacks are in the playoffs? awesome! hopefully they go to the world series this year. the last time was 10 years ago. hopefully they do good. and picayune, Mississippi is right on the border of my area. I've been there a few times on exchanges there. and one of our members lives there so we go there from time to time. so usually on p-days, we really don't do much. just kind of chill with the Waveland missionaries. the last time we did something really fun was golf about 3 months ago. hopefully we do something fun again soon. I'm still taking a ton of pictures. i try to take as many as i can. its pretty cool. i have a lot of random pictures of scenery but oh well, i have alot of room for it. so conference is this week and its pretty cool, my 3rd one. next conference will be my last one on the mission. its a cool thought. well dad thanks for the letter ill talk to you next week, have a good week bye!

love hank


Hank at his Zone Conference this past week.  He's in the back on the far right.  So different than his first zone conference a year ago (below), when he looked a little overwhelmed, maybe a little homesick. (Below he's on the back row, 2nd from left)



November 2010, almost a year ago.



Package from Hank- Conference Crunch recipe

We got the funniest package from Hank on Saturday.  We rarely get packages from him, I think the last one was last Christmas.  So this came as a surprise.  John handed me the box, and I felt it, and I said to John "It feels like he sent us bricks!"  We opened it, and it WAS bricks.  Two of them!  And also 3 railroad nails, an empty bottle of super hot sauce, and an empty can of Dr. Pepper. There was a letter that came with it, and he explained the items.  In honor of his one year, he wanted to send these items home, to keep for him as mementos.  The 2 bricks came from his apartment in Pass Christian.  (They were 2 bricks laying around outside his apartment.)  The railroad nails came from 3 different places.  West Monroe, Vicksburg, and Pass Christian.  He's collecting railroad nails from each area!  I love it.  Totally Hank!  And the hot sauce bottle is what's left of a dare.  Hank was dared to drink the entire bottle by his companion when he was back in West Monroe, and he took the dare, and drank it.  And then he threw it all up.  And THEN, he sent us a picture.  Dis-gust-ing!  No, I won't post that picture, so no worries.  And finally, the Dr. Pepper can...in his letter, he wrote "just letting you know I'm still drinking Dr. Pepper"  It has Thor on it, I think that's why he saved this particular can. 
So we sent him a One Year Mark package today.  His only request when I asked him last week what we could send him, was "Conference Crunch".  It's a snack that originally came from a friend of ours, Molly Wright, who liked to drop it off every General Conference.  It's great!  (The recipe is at the end of this post.) Last General Conference, we sent him 2 big gallon sized bags of it, one for him, and one for his companion.  That's what he wanted in his package this week, the only thing he asked for, so today we mailed it out.  And we decided to add a few things, so we added an Arizona T shirt, a jar of JIF Peanut Butter, a bunch of candy, and Addie came up with the idea to send something from home, something he'd appreciate.  So we sent him a ziploc with a bag of leaves from our citrus trees, a pine cone from our tree in the back yard, and 3 little limes from our lime tree, that just started producing limes for the first time this season!  Hopefully he'll get a kick out of it.  If he can send home railroad nails and bricks, we can sent him pinecones and limes from our tree! I think he'll especially love all the notes Jonna writes all over the things we put in the package.  (She does it every time!  If only I was that creative). 

Conference Crunch (courtesy of Molly Wright)

6 cups Golden Grahams

6 cups Rice Chex

3-4 cups nuts (I use cashews and slivered almonds)

-Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

-In a saucepan bring the following ingredients to a boil for 3 minutes (not any longer!):

1 cup sugar

1 cup light Karo Syrup

¾ cup butter or margarine

-After it boils for 3 minutes then pour it over the

dry mixture. Stir it until it is coated evenly, then pour onto wax

paper to cool.

Sept 19, 2011- One Year Mark! It's gone so FAST!

hey mom how you doing? thanks for the letter. well this week was cool. i celebrated my 1 year mark as you know, and it was cool. haha.  it really was! we went to panda express in slidell and then we came back and burned my shirt. it was so awesome, oh there are no panda express down here. the closest one is in slidell and it was built a month ago. there are literally no panda expresses, be grateful for them, back home, haha! The nec's came to church again, they stayed for primary this time, but one of their kids was absolutely scared of it, it went good though for the most part, we'll have to see them this week again to see how they liked it. you know conference is next week, and it came by again real fast, I'll only have 1 more after it. time is going by faster than i thought, I'm not saying its flying by but its faster than i thought. I've really enjoyed my first year on the mission and i hope that my next year is even better. well that's been about it, thanks for the package you can go right ahead and surprise me with stuff. I'll talk to you next week, love ya mom. bye!

love hank

 

hey dad thanks for the letters, it sounds like a pretty busy week with all the games going on and stuff. this week was pretty cool, celebrating my 1 year out in the mission, it was great! i cant believe that its already been a year out here it definitely went by faster than i thought it would. well we burned a shirt and went to panda express in slidell. it was great eating at panda gain. this week looks pretty cool also. were probably going to see the nec's and maybe gator and Cynthia too. conference is next Saturday and its going to be my 3rd one in the mission too, only 1 more. its definitely going bye faster than i thought. well me and Elder T are doing good, we're still pushing along. i really appreciate all that you guys do. ill talk to you next week, thanks again for everything dad love ya bye

love hank

Pictures!

Hank sent us his SD card full of pictures from Vicksburg and Pass Christian.  About 700 pictures! Here's a few...to give you an idea of where he's been serving. 

A playground under an overpass, in Pass Christian. 
Look close at Hank's skin, you can see how hot and humid it is!







Last night in Vicksburg- saying goodbye to a great family they'd been teaching.  May 2011.

 


The bridge Hank and Elder T ride over every day. 



Pass Christian

 

P-Day.  A family they are teaching loaned them their golf clubs!



What's left of a house after Hurricane Katrina.






I think Hank is still in Vicksburg in this picture.  Some of the pictures are mixed up! 
I think this was taken in April, but not sure!  But I love this picture!



Hank and his companion, Elder "T". This is their 3rd transfer together in Pass Christian.



Excerpt of emails dated Sept 12, 2011- one year mark this week!

Hank will be out one year on Sept 15!  Wow!  It's FLOWN!
Here are some excerpts of the emails we got from him this week:

hey mom how you doing, Well this week is the pretty eventful. The 9/11 10th anniversary and my 1 year mark. It's pretty exciting to get past 1 year. Only 1 year left. I've been thinking of 9/11 this week, mostly about what i was doing 10 years ago. I think everybody subconsciously does that. Back home whenever 9/11 rolled by again, all those documentaries would come on and i would watch them but after awhile I really had to watch something else. It really got depressing. Anyway its just crazy that that was 10 years ago.  Well my 1 year mark is on Thursday and I'm pretty excited for it. I'm probably going to go out and get something to eat. And October 4th is the first day out in the mission field and that 1 year mark is coming up too. It really has gone by faster than I thought it would. So this past week was cool we mostly just went over the bridge a few times to go see people. We haven't seen Gator or the Nec family yet this week, but hopefully in this coming week we will.

love hank

Hey dad how you doing? Thanks for the letter, its crazy that the 10 anniversary of 9/11 was this week. I totally agree with you after awhile it just gets depressing. I  have to start doing something fun. My 1 year mark is pretty exciting too. Can't believe a year has gone by. And it goes by faster than  I thought. There are sometimes that it goes by way too fast, and some times where it feels like its never going to end. It depends on how your mood is I guess.

That's crazy AJ was ordained this week, I didn't know he was. That's cool and Jack is leaving too this week. He will be a year behind me. So this week we mostly just tried to see people. We weren't able to see the Nec's or Gator but it was still pretty good. I really think this may be my last transfer in Pass Christian, so I'm going to try to enjoy it while I can because I  know I'm going to leave eventually and I'll want to come back to this area. That's what happened with West Monroe and Vicksburg. Thanks again for the letter, I'll talk to you next week. love ya bye

love hank

Excert of email sent Sept. 6, 2011- Tropical Storm Lee

Hey Mom! Well this week was cool, tropical storm Lee came and it was crazy! Seriously I never knew how strong a tropical storm was. it was pretty cool though, we went out to the beach and took some pictures!! I'll send them to you soon. A tree landed on Gators house and his electricity went out, we went over yesterday with some ward members and we took the tree down. He's doing good. and also the floor in our room at the apartment is wet because of the rain, pretty crazy. It was fun riding through it. Extreme weather is crazy. Well we went to the Nec's yesterday and they are doing awesome! They bought us ties!! They seriously are really cool, I'm really glad that I'm staying another 6 weeks. oh yah transfer info all four of us are staying me, Elder T, Elder M, and Elder K. That's really all that happened this week, the storm really slowed things down, I cant wait for you guys to see the pictures.

Well anyway thanks for the letter, and don't worry I'm fine from the storm haha, I'll talk to you next week, love ya bye!

love hank

Hey Dad! Well tropical storm Lee came through this week and it was really cool. It was so windy and raining alot. It was actually pretty crazy i never realized how powerful tropical storms were until it came. back home when the news was saying that a tropical storm hit Florida or whatever i was like "oh that's nothing" but it was crazy. A tree landed on gators house and so we went over yesterday to help chop it down, he really appreciated it. I definitely took pictures and stuff. Well with transfer info. all four of us are staying again for 6 more weeks. so me and Elder T are both here again. I'm pretty excited about it, pass christian is a good place and I've made so many friends here. especially the Nec's family were teaching. they are awesome, and they really like us. They are our top investigators right now and things are going good. How has it been back home? Just refereeing more games? That's cool, when I  come back I would like to go to some of those games. I never really saw you referee before, I really want to watch now. Well dad thanks for the letter. I'll talk to you later thanks, bye!

love Hank