The Very Last Letter From Arkansas: 3/23/14

Dear Family and Friends                                                                    March 23, 2014

            Well here it is, the last full day in our missionary apartment. Went to Church this morning, Sister Hansen and I were asked to speak. Then we taught our last Sunday school class, then we went to our last priesthood and Relief Society meeting here in Paragould. The meetings were good as always, but the good byes were tough. When people break down and cry or get all choked up when they are saying goodbye, that is pretty hard to take. Even last Friday at the seniors centers as we said our good byes. It was hard to leave home, but it is much harder to leave here. Mom has most everything packed up. Last night I loaded the trunk, totally full. Now the rest has to go in the back seat in the morning. There is still a lot left, probably won’t be able to see out the back window on the way home. But I am determined to make it fit, especially since I took to boxes to the shipping place and they wanted $40 a box for shipping and they weren’t that big or weighed that much. In the morning I have to take the modem back to the Light, Power and Cable place, so I have to get this e-mail off today.

            The sleep bug got both of us.   I haven’t been sleeping well because I get cold during the night.  Now I know that there is an easy fix but the blankets have been washed some have been already packed and in the trunk.  So I cuddle closer to Dad to keep warm at night.

     The apartment manager does a spring apartment check on Tues.  I have never heard of an apartment check except on campus housing.  So again I am packing our things but also the missionary things and then each room has to be dusted and cleaned.  I have most rooms clean because I keep the apartment clean anyways but there is always the little things that have to be done and all the floors have to be cleaned and some have to be scrubbed.  We were given a list of things that they want done.   I don’t think that the housing wants to pay a fine for messy apartments so we will be cleaned up before we leave.   I cleaned out the cupboards and fridge, gave things to the Sisters and Elders at least what they would take.  Boxed up more and took it to the couple that we have taught and baptized.  The rest we will take to the family that is kind enough to feed us tonight.

     I am so afraid that I will forget something and if I do then that will be the end of it, the missionaries will think that it belongs to them.

     Earlier this last week we received a phone call inviting us to go and visit a Roman and Celtic reenactment. They were getting everything ready to do the reenactment and so we could go and see what they were doing without having to be in costume.  We took the Elders and Sisters with us.  I can easily say that it was impressive and the Elders and Sisters loved it.  I don’t think that they will forget it.  They received a lecture on the history that was being reenacted by some of the men that were part of the Celtic village.  Dad and I was given a lecture on grain grinding and I got to do that then we were shown how the sling works, I would not want to be hit by someone slinging a stone.  The Elders and Sisters got to help put up a leather tent at the Roman fort.  We walked all over probably more up hill and down then we have done in a long time.  We had just had a heavy rain so there were puddles big ones that we had to walk around.   It was a great day to see the camp the sun was warm and there was no wind.  We might even be able to sell 50lb. bags of barley to them next year.  It was a great experience for the missionaries, once they figured out that these were not our children.  Of course we all had to come home and do tick checks and I took a shower.  But it was great, where else could we have seen a Roman fort and a Celtic village.  Once in awhile we see things that I don’t think we would have seen any where else.

Love Mom and Dad

3/17/14

Dear Family and Friends                                                            Marchuary 17, 2014

 

            Happy St Patrick’s Day! We are planning our traditional dinner of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, soda bread, pistash-pistash- pistash, green gravy. We are having the missionaries over. Only Sister Mazeika has had corned beef. We’ll have to see how the others like it.

            Last night we went to the Branch President’s for supper. They also invited a part-member family over. They have only one child, a boy who just turned 12, he was ordained a deacon yesterday. They are Spanish from Mexico, both the husband and wife have engineering degrees. The husband is the non-member, his company sent him up to Arkansas to do some work for their company here, they liked him so much they offered him a very nice job here. So they moved up last fall. The wife is from a wealthy family and has always had servants to cook the food, do the laundry, and clean the house. She hasn’t found a job yet here in Arkansas, so she has turned into a stay at home mom. The first six months they lived in a small rented house, they just bought a newer, bigger brick home in a really nice neighborhood, we went to visit them last week. We commented on how big it was. The wife said: “Yes, and a lot more to have to keep clean.” I don’t think the husband can resist much longer not joining the church. The branch here is so warm and welcoming.

            Saturday we drove about 12 miles to the east to the farm that is managed by the Elders Quorum President. He took us on a tour of the farm. It is called Black Gold Farms. It started years ago up in North Dakota as a family farm. They have expanded down through the Midwest all the way to Florida. Tens of thousands of acres are part of the farm (mom here)and they have a contract with Frito-Lay to provide all the potatoes for potato chips.  I thought that they just used regular potatoes but no there are potatoes that are just for chips and nothing else.  So on our tour we saw the diggers of course but what was interesting was the way the potatoes are washed.  We drove around several acres of ground that was either already planted or were being planted.  Since the soil is still wet there were places that nothing grows.  The farm in Missouri rents about 5,000 acres of land, they only own the place where the office and shop is.  This year they bought 45 new tractors and the ones that were sold back to the dealership were only a year old.  There was potato seed every where inside several buildings.  We learned more about potatoes.  So now we have been on a rice and soybean farm, a cotton farm, and to finish up we have been on a potato farm.  The only thing we haven’t done has gone out to the catfish farm.

     Well we can now say that we have tasted crawfish.  It is a hot item this time of the year.  I can say that I tasted the red spicy little crawfish  it is like a small crab and is just as hard to get any meat.  The restaurant that we went to was a tin building that is only open about four months out of the year.  Any ways they serve the crawfish on huge platters that is heaped with crawfish, little red potatoes, and corn on the cob.  They bring a bucket for the tails and heads.  Dad ate more then I did because that Cajun spice was hot.  There wasn’t much that I could eat so I had a salad.

      The Relief Society birthday dinner was taco salad again all I could eat was a salad with lettuce and tomatoes.  We played speed getting to know you.  Since I have never watched Speed dating nor have ever done such a thing, I really wasn’t sure just exactly what we were suppose to do.  I learned all kinds of interesting things about the fourteen sisters that actually came.  Dad was the Priesthood presence for the party.  He got a sunflower plant and the taco salad then was asked to leave while we played the game.  It was to bad that more of the Sisters didn’t come.

           We were invited to have tacos at a members house, again I had lettuce and tomatoes.  This is the house that we ate at for Thanksgiving dinner.  The members invite people to come to dinner but it is always served at the neighbors home.  I felt like we were not wanted before but not as much as I felt this time.  I ended up standing up because there was not any place to sit down at and there were big bugs crawling all over everything.  I really tried not to shudder at the bugs and filth.  We left as soon as we could and we did have another appointment thankfully. 

            I can hardly believe that we only have eight days left of this mission.  We will be done on Fri. helping at the Seniors.  We still have a lesson to give on Sun. plus we are the speakers for Sacrament meeting.  We have a few dinner appointments left and we get to go to the Memphis temple for the special missionary session.  Hopefully we won’t be the only couple besides the Mission President and his wife.  There are about four other six month missionaries that are all going home at about the same time but they have to choose to go to the temple so we will see what happens.  Then we will have one day to finish packing and loading up the car so we can leave in the morning of the 26^th .  I am of two minds I really do want to see our children and grandchildren, but I will miss everyone here.

            We have birthday cookies to give out within the next few days and one is today.  We will see if we can get in since this man told us not to stop and visit.  It won’t be the first time that they will take the cookies and shut the door.  Everyone so far is always so surprised when the cookies are delivered to their door.

            Well I need to close.  Plan on us about the 10^th of April if we decide to stop and see everyone that is on the way.  If Dad really wants to go straight home then we will be home sooner rather then later.

            Take care, we love you and pray for you.

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

P.S. Doesn’t mom do a good job, writing letters. She also cleans, cooks, vacuums, loads the dishwasher, does laundry, bakes cookies and makes the bed. She just makes me tired watching all the things that she does. My job is to drive her and the missionaries around and keep the car full of gas. I also try to look halfway intelligent, bear my testimony and say prayers. I also have been known to take a nap and have occasionally fallen asleep while she is talking. I try hard not to fall asleep while driving the car, thus the need for my occasional mid afternoon nap. Every Tuesday is a missionary meeting. If there is not a zone conference, or a zone meeting (they are two different meetings, but they seem the same to me) or a specialized training meeting (which also seems the same), then we have a district meeting that week. Now district meeting I can tell are different from the others, because they are held in Paragould and there are only 10-12 missionaries at that meeting. But we do the same things as we do at the other meetings, just on a smaller scale. Since we have almost as many sisters as we do elders, there is always a lot of flirting going on before and after the meetings. Which is okay, it is about time some of these young men get beyond the stake dance mentality and realize there are some wonderfully talented and sharp sisters in the church and they are worth being worthy of. (Dad)

3/10/14

Our Most Dear Family and Friends,                                                   March 10, 2014

            Sister Hansen is fixing supper, we realized we have not written our letters today. First we went on line and read from Evan’s and then Jean’s emails, thank you so much for your writing.

            This morning we went to the seniors to help package the meals on wheels. The Seniors Center was closed all last week, due to the ice, sleet, & frozen rain storm we had last Sunday. This is the third time this winter that the schools were closed for a whole week due to the snow and ice. The world out here just shuts down, no one goes to work, schools close, most business stay closed. No roads are plowed, they just wait for it to melt.

            Later this morning we went out to see John Miles, he is a farmer out here and runs about 4,000 acres of rice, cotton and soybeans. We went out to his farm last fall and watched his men picking cotton with a huge John Deere cotton picker. He is the same age as Sister Hansen and I. We enjoyed visiting with him so much last fall, we drove out to his place this morning to thank him for his kindness and to say our good byes. We got to meet his wife and daughter (who is married to a minister.) They also were very pleasant.

            This afternoon we went to Judy and Lloyd Dunn and finished reading the Book of  Mormon with them. We have been on that project for three months.   Judy had committed to be baptized on her mother’s birthday and she was progressing so well.  Because of the time change and they were unaware that Sun. was the day for the change.  So all the way through church we could not figure out what was going on, they were not there.  After the sacrament was passed Dad went out and called them.  They were on their way to church and they were going to be early.  Well they were an hour late to church.  After Sunday School class and Relief Society, I find out that she is dizzy doesn’t feel well, wants to be baptized but doesn’t feel well enough to attempt it.  I also found out that she did not eat breakfast and her blood sugar was very low.  So I talk to our Branch Mission President and he comes into the girls bathroom and visits with her to find out what she want to do.  She wanted to be baptized.  Dad and the Elders gave her a blessing and then she really wanted to go ahead.  We had to put her in a white choir like robe that I found in the closet because there was not anything else that would fit her.  I helped her undress and dress in the robe and then she was ready to have Dad baptized her.  It was a tricky getting into the water but with Dad helping her she made it.  She was far to frightened to let Dad baptize her as he would usually do.  He had her sit down and then he supported her as he let her down and put her under the water.  She is baptized.  Then he helped back up and out of the water.  One of the witnesses was ready to crawl over the mirror because he thought that Dad was going to need help.  I dried her off and since she had forgotten that she needed dry clothes after wards she was wet after she got dressed again.  The confirmation blessing was beautiful.  She is a changed lady and several people including her family sees the change.  After she ate and took a nap she was fine.  Both she and Lloyd have health issues but she was one very determined lady.  We had such bad weather and the roads were terrible but she was ready to go to her interview no matter.  The Zone leader came to her and did the interview.

            Yesterday at church I got to teach a youth Sunday School Class, a Priesthood Lesson and afterwards got to perform a baptism. That’s not as much as others do, but it was a lot for me. I felt very drained,  Mom Speaking  I taught a class also then had to talk on baptism I lost my notes so it was given from I know was just plain inspiration  I was so stressed making sure that everything that was planned was going as planned.  Then later that evening Sister Hansen drug me down to Jonesboro and had a local High Councilman who is a doctor, operated on my face and remove an infected mole on the side of my face. The deadening needle was about 3” long. The doctor had a big smile on his face all the time he was shooting me.   Dad did not want to do anything and I would have been alright with that but the mole was swelling up again and looking not good. Apparently it wasn’t something that was dangerous but he did agree that it should be burned off.  The first time that I have seen a laser used, the smell was awful I finally had to cover up my nose.

     The snow, sleet, and ice storm was pretty bad.  Again I was wishing for snow tires with studs.  Everyone is so laid back oh we’ll just let it melt attitude.  Forget that the roads are just plain dangerous and until the temps warm up it isn’t going to be melting.  But true to Arkansas weather the sun came out and it has warmed up to the high 60’s and the snow and ice is almost gone.  We are being assured that it is now spring and it won’t have that kind of storm again this year.  We are also being told that this winter was the worst one that any one can remember.  I am thankful that we never lost the power like they did 5 years ago. Some places were out of power for 3 weeks.

             Mom and I changed places so many times in this letter even I can’t tell what I wrote and what she wrote. In two weeks and two days we will be leaving our apartment for home. Very sad. It was tough coming out here. I think it will be tougher leaving Arkansas. But I think after two full weeks of traveling home we will be glad to be there.

“Be brave, stout heart.”   take care, we will be there soon.

Love Mom and Dad

3/2/14

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                   March 3, 2014

            Woke this morning at 6:30 am to a world of white. Thought I would go down and sweep the snow off the car. Got on my sweatshirt, coat and gloves, took the broom and headed down stairs. Opened the front door, no one had been out of our apartment building yet this morning. Took my first step, my feet went up, my bottom came down hard, and I slid to the bottom of the steps. They weren’t really steps, just a filled in sloping sheet of frozen sleet. The sidewalk had a buildup of about 3”, but not with snow, but 3” of frozen white sleet. My feet didn’t even make a depression. I unlocked the car but all doors were frozen shut. I banged against all of them until I finally got a back  door to open. I crawled into the back seat, reached over the seats, put the key in the ignition and started the car. As it was warming up I tried to sweep of the snow, but the white stuff didn’t budge. It was a solid block. As the windows got warmer I was able to get under the white stuff and start chipping off small chunks. I heard a guy down at the end of the parking lot trying to get his pickup with big tires, out of the parking lot. It wasn’t moving, just a lot of spinning tires. After about 10 minutes he got backed up enough to start forward motion. Our drive way has a gentle slope up to the road. He didn’t make it. He had to back down and get another long run at the road.

After that I finally got the white stuff off the windows, I got into the car and thought I could back it up a bit , to make a path. It never even backed up one inch, I tried forward, again not even an inch. Guess we are what you called ice bound. My body still hasn’t recovered from the sudden jolting motion of coming down hard on my bottom.

            Came back upstairs and decided to write to my family instead of battling such a formidable foe.  Then the Elders and Sisters came over to use our computer to write emails to the president and their families. They have stayed for lunch since no one can go anywhere. I finally have the computer back. Its hard to get things done when your apartment is full of missionaries.

            Last Friday there was a senior missionary meeting in Little Rock at the Mission presidents home. There are about 13 missionary couples in the mission. We were all interviewed by the president. We had a pot luck lunch. We had a meeting with instructions. We all got a chance to talk about what we were doing in our areas. It was over 3 hour drive down. We met the Lockett’s from Blytheville, Arkansas in Jonesboro and they rode down with us. We got back to Jonesboro about 5:00 pm. Got home about 5:30. At the meeting we were told that the five stake presidents all got together and decided to increase the number of convert baptisms for 2014 to 800. We had the goal of 636 that was set by the missionaries  which was very do able and realistic. Last year we attained 521. So with increased missionaries we felt we could reach 636. Our missionaries are willing to take on the new challenge. They are faithful.

            We get a new mission president this summer. He is a native convert from Fiji.

And has two children ages 17 and 10 that will be coming with their parents.  President Peterson isn’t worried about the new President but he is worried about his wife.  She will have to decide on all medical problems, help all the sister missionaries, be very involved with the mission by traveling all over with her husband plus have to give talks at every specialized meeting.  I’m sure tho’ that they will both do well.

     Dad didn’t tell you that we are being released on the 24^th of March and need to be out of here on the 26^th which is the mission transfers date.  They are going to move another set of Elders into Paragould so even though they won’t be living in this apartment they will need our furniture and what ever else that belongs to the mission.  This will allow us to do more then we thought we would have time for.  We were going to start packing, which I have already started to do but now it will be more in earnest.  Dad keeps saying that we still have a month but I really don’t like being in a rush to pack up.  I have seen to many missionary apartments where all kinds of things have been left behind and the departed missionary wants what was left behind.

     We will have the Sisters again this week, so far we can’t take them anywhere but since it will be getting up to the 60’s at the end of the week the roads will clear out and we will be going to all of their appointments and waiting or we should plan better and go and do our own things while they are doing theirs.

       Judy will be getting baptized Sun. so that is still on.  We aren’t done reading The Book of Mormon with her but if we read more then six chapters and if we can get her to do more reading on her own then we will be done before she is baptized.  She has had all of the lessons in kind of a sideways way.  She did not like cut out figures or illustrations that missionaries like to do.  We have already gone through the questions that will be asked at her interview, so we are hoping that we have her as prepared as we can.

     We were invited to go to a MidSouth Farm Credit dinner by the director that is here in Paragould.  We obviously couldn’t vote but we did enjoy the meeting from a southerners point of view.  We were introduced to the CEO of the bank in this area and to many other farmers.  We were also introduced to a lady that works for Farm Credit that is LDS she was so excited to be able to talk to someone who belonged to the same church.  It didn’t take long for us to talk about church things and I noticed that everyone around us just melted away.  They gave us a weather warning device. At first we never heard an alarm but a couple of mornings ago at 4:30 in the morning the alarm started to buzz and yes it is loud enough to wake up the dead.  It was telling us that a massive winter storm was on it’s way.  Most of the afternoon and evening yesterday the alarm kept going off giving us updates on weather and road conditions.  So it’s almost tempting to leave it here but who knows maybe we can use it some other time.

     Dad is downstairs trying to get the car to move so he can go and get a shovel to get rid of 3inches of ice on the steps and walk way.  Then maybe we can get the missionaries out of the apartment.  They have been playing games for most of the afternoon and one of us have to be here to chaperon them.

           Well my dears I need to close. I have clothes to fold up and as soon as the missionaries leave I will clean the floor.  They keep talking about not cleaning or doing their laundry so what do they do?

      Love to all  We will see you soon

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