2/17/14

Dear Family and Friends                                                                        February 17, 2014

            What a busy week, we got to go to the temple last Monday, Tuesday started a week of driving the Sisters around, because they were without a car this past week. Wednesday Sister Hill was transferred out, “we are going to miss that girl”. The new Sister is Sister Mazeika, she is from Pleasant Grove, she is of Lithuanian descent. Her name means short person and she lives up to that, she is also very quiet, haven’t heard four words out of her in the back seat all week. Sister Hill screamed more than that, especially if I missed a turn, or turned left on a red light, or ran through a stop sign.

In this mission both missionaries don’t share driving. One member of each companionship is chosen by the mission as the designated driver and they do all the driving, for that companionship. For a sister, Sister Hill had amazing directional skills, Sister Cooke on the other hand does not. She is lost most of the time. This week will prove interesting as she drives the companionship around. From the day we left Weiser Sister Hansen made me the designated driver, she hasn’t driven once since we left home.  That is not exactly true, I took my turn driving on the way out.  I would much rather have Dad do the driving then he has no one else to blame for some of the crazy driving that we have to do.

Mom here: We had a Branch Valentine activity on Wed. night.  It was started on time and an hour later it was over.  I wanted to do this on a weekend but got outvoted so because it was a school night it only lasted an hour.  There were many happy parents who wanted to get their kids to bed or to finish their homework.  We had Valentine cards made then we put positive thoughts in side the card something about each person.  We tied the cards to three trees one for the adults, one for YMYW and one for the Primary. I put piles of pink, red and white paper, stickers, lace doilys  in the middle of each table with scissors so that everyone could make a valentine and then we had the cards judged.  We also had a table with that new craze rubber bands to make bracelets, necklaces, or key chains.  I think that table was the most popular.  We had cookies that the kids frosted with about 1-2inches of frosting and pink elephant punch for refreshments.  It was enough, kids went home full of sugar.

The Branch doesn’t have a good schedule for cleaning the church so Sat. we took the Sisters with us and gave that building a good cleaning.  Probably the best it has ever had.  The Sisters kept complaining that the girls bathroom didn’t smell good so I went exploring to find out the reason well I found the reason and took care of it.   I was so glad that we did because we had our new Stake President Pres.Burkheimer, the Stake Missionary coordinator, The Stake Executive  Sec.and the High Councilor for our Branch attend Church.  There will be some changes very soon since Sister La Vetter has been called to be the new stake YW Pres.  At least we won’t have to worry about it.

After days of grey gloomy days that were just plain down right cold we now are back to warm days and plenty of sunshine.  Everyone says that spring starts in Feb. there for awhile I was wondering how could that be since it was so cold.  But the one farmer in our Branch is going to plant potatoes starting today.  We would never think that this a good time but he is certain that spring has sprung.  We are suppose to have lots of rain this coming weekend so I hope this works out for him.

We went to a concert Sat. of the Paragould Jazz band and some professional players.  It was music from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s.  They had singers, backup singers and a band teacher that was an act in it’s self.  This teacher came here 5 years ago and had 71 band students.  Now he has over 300 members in the band.  Of the incoming 7^th graders three out of every four students signed up for band.  I could see why the kids are flocking to band, right now it is the class that everyone wants to be a part of.  He works with the kids makes them feel like they can do anything.  I wish that his personal life was better but his professional life is doing very well.  The concert was so loud that I had to take Kleenex and stuff my ears so I could tolerate the sound.  It was good, two hours of good oldies.

The Seniors had a Sweethearts party and dance Fri. afternoon.  Dad just had to go and then he didn’t want to dance.  If he didn’t want to dance then why were we there?  He finally did dance two dances then we had to go but we could have been dancing more if he would have gotten up.  I think that he thought that there would be a lot people dancing but there were only a few and he didn’t want to make a spectacle of himself.  We so enjoy serving at the senior center, the people that we work with and the friends that we have made there.  They are so accepting and  welcoming, one lady asked us especially to pray for her son.

Okay my dears I need a nap.  What has happened to letters to your parents?  All of a sudden everyone but Evan has stopped writing.  The mailbox has been very empty and you should remember how excited you were when you received a letter, well it is the same for us.  Thank you Johnny and Emma for your Valentines card and Jill and Wanda thank you for the cards that you sent.

Take care and keep on trekking  that is what we are doing we just keep on going forward.

 

LOVE

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

Dad here again: To misquote from a song we heard the other night  at the concert,

“We are lost between two shores,

Weiser’s fine, but it ain’t home,

Paragould’s home, but it ain’t ours much more,

We are our selves, and no one else.”

Mom says you won’t know what song that’s from. I say, you will all know what song that is from. She says I need to give you the hint of Neil Diamond, I say they don’t need a hint they will know.

An other song that was sung on the program was by a sister member of the branch here. She sang “I Will Survive”, by Gloria Gaynor. When she was singing, one of the verses goes

“and so you’re back from outer space

I just walked in to find you here

With that sad look upon your face,

I should have changed that stupid lock,

I should have made you leave your  key.

If I had known for just one second

You’d be back to bother me”

When I heard her sing that verse, I said to my self “I know that verse” “Where do I know that verse from” For the life of me I couldn’t place where I had heard that verse. It bothered me the rest of the night. I finally called Evan and asked him where I knew that verse from. He said “It was from “Men in Black II” The bulldog riding with Will Smith sings that verse.   Evan is so smart.