Dec 27. Two days after Christmas...

hey mom how you doing?! it was so great talking to all of you guys on Sunday! it was so cool to finally be able to talk to you guys after 7 months. wow that so crazy, 7 months without talking, that's the longest time so far i think I've gone without talking to you all. I'm looking forward to my next and last phone call in a few months. so Christmas was great! we went to the gel family for dinner. they are so cool, one of my favorite people to go to. i enjoyed being there for Christmas. so yah i was telling you about jack, me and dietz met him like 3 days after we got doubled in to pass, and ever since then we've been seeing him. he's a really cool guy who enjoys our company. we usually see him a few times a week. the pictures you sent were awesome! i loves seeing all the pictures of everybody talking! it was really cool. i have a picture of me too talking if you want that one. I really enjoyed the gifts you guys sent me, i really like the 2 half pound Reese's cups you sent me, i haven't eaten them yet, but they will be gone soon though, haha! well right now I'm writing you in slidell at the lds employment thing/ bishops storehouse place. I'm on exchange until Wednesday with elder dav. and elder hig is with elder wagi n pass until Wednesday! its funny that they're together again.well that's it for now, again i loved talking to all of you guys, i cant wait to do it again, tanks or everything ill talk to you next week, in the year 2012! love ya bye!

love hank 

hey dad, how is it going? i really liked talking to you on Sunday. i really wish we could have talked longer, but oh well. May will be here soon enough. i wonder if I'm going to be able to talk to everybody again on mothers day next year. i sure hope so, but well see. i like hearing about your guy's Christmas, it so sounds like what we do every year. the puzzles is a really good tradition. it is actually one of the things that i look forward to the most around Christmas season. the harder the puzzle the more fun they seem to be. this week was pretty cool. just seeing everything slow down and get ready for Christmas. a lot of people left town, and a bunch of stores and places were closed too. it was cool though to think that this is my last Christmas out on my mission. i remember last Christmas and it was a year ago. it feels so long ago but it also feel like it was just a few months ago too. its weird, but that's what it feels like. anyway, thanks for all that you guys have done, and all the letters you write and the packages. i really like them, i cant thanks you guys enough for doing it. until next week, love ya bye!

love hank

Talked to Hank today!

I couldn't finish the day without posting about our phone call with Hank.  It was so nice to hear his voice.  He called this morning right after we got home from church (we had a nice Christmas Sacrament meeting, the rest of the meetings were cancelled for Christmas).  We got home about 10:30 am, and he called about 10:45 to let us know that he'd be calling about 3:00.  He didn't know if we would be able to Skype, so Jonna got her laptop set up just in case.  He called about 3:30, and told us we'd just be able to talk on the phone, no skyping.  No problem though...it was just nice to hear him, hear how he's doing, and I know he loved hearing everyone's voices.  I asked him how he'd like to talk...either on speaker with everyone, or individually...he said he'd like to talk to everyone one at a time.  So Carla started, went outside and talked with Hank first.  Then Jeri, then Addie, then A.J., then Jonna, then me, and then finally John.  Everyone got a nice chunk of time to talk to him...A.J. took the longest, I think knowing this would be the last time they'd talk for about 2 1/2 years...A.J. just wanted to talk, so they talked for quite some time.  It was just so nice to hear him.  What a great way to finish up Christmas.

 We ended the conversation by putting the phone at the dinner table, put the phone on speaker, and we had a family prayer together.  Then we all said goodbye again to him, and finally, I hung up the phone.  I love that kid.  But he's really not a kid anymore.  He'll always be my kid....but he's growing up. My gosh...he's a month away from being 21!  Wow!  Amazing how time has flown.  My heart is full today for many reasons.  We're less than 2 months away from saying goodbye to Jonna.  We'll soon be hearing where A.J. will be serving, and having to say goodbye to him too...most likely in the Spring.  Yep.  My heart is really full.  With so my gratitude, and at the same time...some dread that we're already here in our lives.  It's all good, though.  Anyhow...so that was our Christmas phone call with Hank. So nice!  Next one is in May, on Mother's Day.  It'll be a tricky day, in that Jonna will be calling, and depending on when A.J. leaves, and if he's out of the MTC, he may be calling too!  We'll just have to see...!

Six more days to Christmas Phone call...Second email he uses the word "yall". Love it!

what up mom?! well this is my last email until i get to call home next week, we had another meeting on Friday and it was cool. it was a cool week, we saw jack a few times he's doing really good. i don't remember if I've told you about jack but we met him like a week after we got here in the pass and ever since we've been good friends. he's a cool guy. next week is going to be so awesome, I'm really looking forward to the phone call. i really don't know if I'm going to be able to skype, but its up in the air, ill let you know on the phone call next week if we can still do it. its going to be awesome. my last Christmas is next week, and then I'll have only 1 more phone call left. a lot of "my lasts" are coming up on the mission now. it's a cool feeling. I'm really looking forward to a lot. anyway, sorry for the very short letter, ill talk to for real next week, love ya bye!

love hank

 

( I noticed in Hank's email last week, that he closed his email with "yall".  I wasn't sure if that was a typo, or if he's starting to pick up on the Southern dialect a little.  Today he send an email to John, and once again, closed it with "yall".  It'll be fun to talk with him on Sunday, and see if he has picked up on any kind of slang or accent.  We really look forward to talking to him in six days!)

hey dad whats up?! well this week was so long, we had to meetings to go to. man the first one was good, elder carden spoke and it was good, but the second one was on Friday and it was really starting to drag me out. i was getting so burnt out. i get really burnt out out after long meetings like that, but for the most part it was ok. I'm really looking forward to Christmas next week, it's going to be awesome. i'll let you know next week in the phone call if we are going to skype or not. this week we saw jack,  he's a really cool guy. i don't know if I've told you much about him, but he's an old war veteran. he reminds me of clint eastwood in gran torino, if you've ever seen that. we also saw jade and whitney they are new people that we met who are way cool too. jade is actually from west monroe.  thats all that's going on right now, I'm really looking forward to next week, its going to be awesome to talk to yall. well anyway that's it for now, love ya bye!

love hank

Zone Conference, Elder Carden visits

hey whats up? thanks for your letter, i especially liked the whole concert dilemma thing. i remember those well. its funny now not going to it and just hearing about it, and yet I'm able to picture exactly;y whats going on. dad told me that at Carla's concert they sang the same songs again, this is America and Christmas is coming and we are getting fat.

....zone conference was yesterday and elder carden of the seventy spoke. he was cool and it was good to listen to him. he had a lot of cool things to say. especially this one thing about the wise men at the nativity.... I'm really looking forward to Christmas in 2 weeks and talking to yall. it will be so good. it amazing how far into my mission I'm actually at now. this week will be my 15 month mark, 9 to go. very exciting. anyway mom thanks again for the letter, and ill talk to you next week, and then talk to you for real on the week after that. love you bye!

love hank

hey mom, another week has gone by. its been pretty good, this week, we mostly just went to gulfport, and saw the necs again this week too.this area is cooling off too. during the day it gets kind of cold, but at nighttime is when it gets the coldest. its still not too bad though. just like home it gets warm sometimes. it sounded like a pretty cool week back home, just running around going to all the events going on. thanks for wanting to send me thermals and stuff, but I'm ok, its not too cold. ill be fine. last winter i was in northern Louisiana, and it got cold, but nothing too bad. so we got a new zone leader now its elder H! do you remember him? he was elder w's trainer in west monroe. anyway he's our new zone leader now. its pretty cool because it feels a little like last year again. well mom thanks fort the letter ill talk to y0u next week, love ya bye!

love hank

 

hey dad, so this week was pretty good, its awesome that I  get to stay for another 6 weeks, it will be 9 months in total, its really exciting. I'm glad that ill be able to talk to you again while I'm in the pass. so this week was transfer week, so us four (me, w, mat, and mo) went to gulfport to hang out with the other missionaries. it was cool, elder T was there, it was cool to see him again. we saw the necs again this week, which was cool. they are doing good, even though they have really slowed down. but they are awesome people and i have become really good friends with them. on Thursday we had a missionary movie night and we showed the testaments. about 5 people showed up, and i made the popcorn it was cool. those were pretty much the big highlights for the week. oh next week is zone conference and elder cardon from the seventy is coming. its pretty cool, but its going to be on next Monday, so you may get my next letter on Tuesday. well dad that's about it for now, i cant wait to talk to you all on Christmas, thanks for everything, love ya bye!

love hank