Happy Halloween!

We got a nice email from Hank today.  He loves his companion, loves the families they are teaching, and just sounds good.  We had to break the news to him that our dog Juliet passed away yesterday.  He loved Juliet, and we debated if we should tell him or not.  He was glad we told him, and took the news very well, but asked that we not post his letter this week on the blog.  It was a crazy week over here in our home, we also had to tell him about an accident John and A.J. were in this last week, in which no one in our family was hurt, but a man on a bike was--pretty badly.  We are grateful he wasn't killed.  Hank was a bit surprised by all the news...and I feel bad we had to hit him with so much.  You sometimes second guess what to share and what not to share, and hopefully we made the right call.  He sounds so good, though, and as I said, loves this family they have been teaching.  He loves the area he's in, and has enjoyed being District Leader.  Jonna, our oldest, got her mission call today, and so she will be letting him know the news this week.  He's pretty excited about her going, and I know he'll be even more excited when he finds out she's going to Texas, and part of Louisiana!  I have changed the blog title from "Elder Jackson goes to Jackson", to "Siblings in the South".  I thought it was an appropriate title, and seems to fit! 

Jonna got her mission call today!

Well, we now will have 2 missionaries out, beginning Feb 8th.  When Jonna told us in August she was thinking of going, she asked that we not say anything to anybody, even our other children.  She didn't want anyone to know she was thinking about it, in case she changed her mind.  Then, when she decided to go, and put her papers in, she decided to have fun with it in the process...and wanted to keep it a surprise.  THE HARDEST secret I've had to keep.  But I honored her wishes, and said nothing, not even to my siblings.  (Please forgive me!)  She was hoping to get her call last week, but it didn't come, so she figured that it would come this Thursday or Friday.  Last night John went to a priesthood leadership meeting, and it was mentioned in the meeting that John's daughter was waiting for her call.  John texted Jonna (we were in Payson, driving back from my nephew Noah's mission farewell) and said "you'd better tell your siblings...the word it getting out".  She told them last night, and they were stunned, surprised, etc.  Of course, then Jeri and Addie wanted to know who was getting her room!  Oh well...!  To everyone's surprise, even Jonna's...the call came this evening about 5:00 PM, just as we were making dinner (feeding the missionaries in fact!), and getting Halloween costumes ready.  John casually brought it in and handed it to Jonna as she was making treats for dinner.  She looked at it, held it, and had a look of disbelief in her hands.  I was also in disbelief.  She said "I can't believe I'm really doing this..."  She has felt so right about it since making the decision, and reality is setting in.  She will be serving in the Texas Houston East Mission, reporting Feb 8th!  So now I will be maintaining this blog for 2 missionaries!  Possibly 3 when our son A.J. gets his papers in.  And so I may change the title of the blog again...but for now, it went from Elder Jackson goes to JACKSON, to Siblings in the South.  We'll see if it changes when A.J. gets his call! 

Transfers this week...he gets to stay in Pass Christian again! District Leader, New "Old" companion.

hey mom how you doing? well as you guys have probably figured out, there have been same changes in the area. well Elder T was transferred out and became a zone leader in Gulfport, only 15 miles away from pass christian. so i stayed in Pass Christian, A.J. was right in the guess's. that's a really good idea doing the guess's. you guys should do it every transfer haha! and i am now the District leader. pretty cool. my new companion is Elder W! do you remember him? he was west Monroe with me while i was with Elder Cummock! W is a cool guy i really like him, he knows alot about movies. this may be my last transfer, i know i said that last time but this one really may be. well this week was cool transfers always make things crazy though. this whole week pretty much elder T and K just went around saying goodbye to as many people as they could. we saw the nec's this week, and they made the best dinner ever. they basically bought a whole bunch of shrimp and they cooked it in a bunch of different ways. they barbecued this shrimp that was so good. we had a good time going over there. its been cooling off down here. it starts to actually make you want to get warm. I'm really excited for winter. Carla had an awesome birthday party! all those people, haha! i bet Carla loved it. October is almost over, this is the last October in my mission. its weird that I've already been through an October on my mission. ill have to listen to that Barry Manilow song again. well mom thanks for the letter, I'll talk to you next week, love ya bye!

love hank

This was taken when Hank was in his first area, West Monroe, Louisiana, about February of 2011. Hank's new companion now, Elder W, is in this picture, on the far left. 

hey mom, thanks for the letter, i really like reading your letters. well this week was pretty good,me and elder k from Waveland went on splits and he came to pass christian with me. it was good except all week it has been so so windy! we biked over the bridge while the wind was against us the entire time! it was so exhausting, I've been a little exhausted this week because of all the biking. well we've been mostly trying to see people this week, we saw the necs once and they're are doing good, they have slowed down a bit, but they are coming along at their own pace. so other than that not much else has happened. this Saturday is transfer info. I'll let you know next week what is going on for transfers. it will be interesting. I'll be here in pass Christian for 6 months next week. that's kind of cool, but it also has flown by. but we'll see what lies in store for me. well thanks again for the letter, ill talk to you next week, love ya bye!

love hank

 PS tell Sis. (Ruth) Morris that i said hi too     (*updated note:  Sis. Ruth Morris, a longtime member of our ward has been very ill.  I went to visit her the Saturday before, Oct. 8, and she asked about Hank.  She shared some very sweet stories about him.  She said "sitting on the back row at church, you notice a lot of things!" She asked me to please tell him hello, which I did in my letter to him the next day.  His P.S. is for her.  Sis. Morris died 3 days after this letter from Hank, on Oct. 13)

hey dad thanks for your letter, that's cool that you got a job at chase in phoenix. i was just wondering, are you working by any chance at chase tower in phoenix? you know the tallest building in Arizona? i was just wondering if it was, that would be cool. well this week was cool. i haven't been able to use the ihop card yet, because there are no ihops around here. there is one in gulfport. i know that I'll be able to use it eventually on my mission, it will be good. so ya we go to daddyz in the pass a lot, its a really good place, really good burgers for a good price and its a nice little place, haha. that's cool that you looked it up and stuff, haha maybe you will try it one day. so the weather is cooling off this week, and hopefully the rest of the year. were supposed to be cooled off for now. the teaching has been going good, seeing the necs mostly. they've slowed down a bit, but there still doing good for the most part. well transfer info is this Saturday, next week is transfers on Tuesday the 18th. I'll let you know on Tuesday what happens. well dad thanks for the ihop card and your letter, ill talk to you next week, love ya bye!

love hank

Oct 3, 2011- Day after General Conference

hey thanks for the letter, i really like conference this week. my favorite talk was elder cook's titanic talk. it really was good, i know a bunch of random facts about the titanic and i really like the movie too. it was cool that he related a lot of stuff to it. well this week we went and had dinner with Shawna on Wednesday. she is really cool, her daughters are funny! we talked a lot about movies. i had a good time over there. hopefully i stay here again for another transfer so we could go over more. that's cool that Carla wants to do a haunted house, i always wanted to do one, haha! i still do actually, i would love to help Carla out on it. thanks for keeping Juliet alive too, haha! i looked at Jeri's profile, its really good, i liked it. i can't wait to see your guy's. those were about the big highlights of the week, conference and dinner with Shawna. this week should be good though. I'll hit my 1 year in Mississippi mark tomorrow. pretty exciting. well mom thanks for everything, I'll talk to you next week, love ya bye!

love hank

 

well conference is over, only 1 more conference left on the mission. its a cool thought. as cool as it is to be out here, its cool to think that next October conference will be at home. well i liked conference it was good, i like cooks talk about the titanic alot. it was probably my favorite one. well this week was pretty good, conference is always good because you just get to sit down and relax. its really nice. i was thinking about you guys eating the red lobster, we went to subway, haha! still good, but not as good. it was great though. none of our investigators came but it was still fine, we'll just see how they did this week. we watched it at the Waveland building. well that's all that i can think of, we didn't see the nec's or gator this week. they've been real busy, we'll try this week. well dad thanks for the letter, I'm sorry the letter is so short. I'm really trying to be better at writing better letters. I'm probably going to have to send and audio tape. I usually say a lot more. well dad thanks for everything, I'll talk to you later, bye!

love hank