Monday, December 16, 2013

12/16/13


Dear Family and friends,                                                                    December 16, 2013

 

            Time just keeps moving on rather I am ready or not. Wendell Walker thinks time is speeding up, I really think it has more to do with myself getting a lot slower. Mom and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary by driving to Searcy, Arkansas, over two hours away for a zone conference, with the sister missionaries. The roads were still very icy and we had to drive with much care. Sometimes I’m glad we don’t have a big van or we would have to drive the whole district places. Scot knows how much I hate driving and it is about all I do. Mom hasn’t drove since we left home. We have to fill up the car every week with gas, but I haven’t had to spend over $3.00 a gallon in the last two months, which is a good thing. On our way home from zone conference we stopped at IHOP and had an anniversary dinner with the sisters. They might be small but they still can eat like missionaries, they ate more than Dad and I. We had a birthday card and cookies we had to drop off on the way home. He lives about 15 miles south of Paragould, so we plugged his address into our GPS and let her guide us on the way back. The sisters are determined that Gina is trying to kill us. We did arrive at the member’s home alright. I think we were the only ones that remembered him on his birthday and stopped by for a visit. He and his wife are divorced and he lives alone. He has a beautiful home he built himself. He likes to hunt and he has four stuffed deer heads on his walls. The week before he had killed a large bobcat, that he put in the freezer and plans on having it mounted sometime in the future. Nice guy used to be in the branch presidency.

            We did take time to go to the Greene County  Technical High Schools play production of “Catch Me if You Can”. For a week without practice because of the ice storm the kid’s did a real good job. The ending turned out different than we had expected. That was on Thursday night. On Friday night we went to a Christmas Musical called “Santa Conquers the Martians” that the community put on. It was a bit cheesy, but considering that a local person wrote all the music for it, and played the piano for all of it, it was okay and a lot of fun.

Yesterday at church the branch had the Christmas Program. A sister in the branch planned it all out and it turned out to be a very good Sacrament Meeting. We didn’t have church last week due to the storm. This week we had almost 100 people in attendance. A branch record I am sure. After the meetings they had a branch potluck meal. I was sure that there wasn’t going to be enough food for everyone, so we held back, but there was enough food to go around with plenty leftovers.   We went to a cookie exchange Sat afternoon.  There were trays and trays of cookies.  I was only going to take 12 in exchange for what I brought but she started loading me up.  So we had two persons in the Branch that had birthdays yesterday and I already had plenty of cookies to share around.  We do have to travel sometimes several miles to take the cookies but not one has turned down the treats and I know that that might be the only celebration that they will have.  For the birthday today he will get muffins that are low in sugar.

    We went to Mid South West Farm Credit to pick up the year calendar, I stayed in the car.  Dad came out and told me that the manager really wanted to meet us, his secretary had told him about us so he was so excited when we came in.  He had had a LDS secretary who had just retired so he knew about the church and the whole office was okay with it.  He was primed with magazines, maps, and articles about Idaho and Utah.  He wanted to know about all kinds of things.  He was interested that we were missionaries for the church and wanted to know what we did. Then as we were leaving he made us promise that we would be back to visit more.   Then today at the Senior center that we do service at a elderly gentleman came over and asked Dad if he liked ties.  He has about 50 ties that he used when he worked at a Funeral home, so we will go and visit and look at ties.  There is also a lady that has asked us to come and visit her several times so we really need to do that.   This is all friendshiping, I don’t  know if the gospel will even be mentioned but at least they know who we are and what we represent.

     Yes we got through the storm and most of the snow around here has melted as has the ice.  I am very glad that there is no ice to speak of.  The temperatures have really started back up this morning at 9:30 it was 42 and now it feels like it is in the high 50’s.  That sun can be hot even when it is suppose to be winter.

        Need to close Have a merry Christmas remember that Christ is the reason and don’t forget your birthday gift to Christ.

                                           Love you all

                                         Mom, Dad, Sister and Elder Hansen, Grammy and Papa

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