29 December 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

       Good to hear from all of you this past Christmas week. It was a very good Christmas even if we were not home. Mom is taking down all the cards and decorations. If it was up to me they would still be up when we get ready to go home in three months. I'm slowly getting all the Christmas treats eaten. Last year I ate way to many treats, way to fast and put on way to many pounds. This year I am practicing restraint. (kind of). Thank you all for all you did for us this Christmas. In two weeks we get to go to Memphis Temple to be with some of the missionaries we got to serve with last year. That will be a neat experience.

      We just got the Christmas package from Doug's family and are looking at all the wonderful pictures of some of the temples in the book that they gave us. Had to stop and take a phone call. I'm trying to buy a couple of things for the farm before the end of the year. Hope I get it all worked out.

      This year has been a lot warmer here in Arkansas, compared to last year. But there is still a lot of winter left to be had.

Mom Here.  Today is clean up and more clean up.  I have boxes with a few things in them so I have been clearing things out making more room because we still have three more months to go.  I will have to send boxes home like I did last year no matter what Elder Hansen thinks.  Flat rate is about the cheapest way to go especially if the boxes are packed tight and heavy.  I probably won't get done today since I also have to make birthday cookies for Jan and July.

     I get so tired of gray skies the only thing that is good about the color gray is that it might get cold but not bitter cold.  We have not had any ice on the windshield yet no ice storms as of yet and not even a skiff of snow and I am not complaining either.  We even haven't taken any of the missionaries to meetings. this past week  We have actually had little to do other than our regular visiting of less actives.

    We have some friends at the Senior center that we visited last week.  They are so lonely and were so delighted that someone thought of them.  We took a loaf of Lemon bread to each of them and visited with each of them.  We know that they will never join the church but they made us feel welcomed and they are more familiar with the church then before.

      Our Sisters had a scary experience last week.  Even tho' they had been told not to go back to a recent converts home by the Branch President, they did not heed his advice.  They went back to read the Book of Mormon with them meaning the recent converts.  For aChristmas present the converts had been given incense sticks but it was pot incense that they were burning.  The sisters were in the home for an hour by the time they left they were flying high.  They don't remember a lot but for some reason they did not call us to help them they called the Mission Pres. who then called the Jonesboro sisters.  Even as of last night they are still having problems.  They were told to go to bed and sleep it off but of course why would we want to do that?   Anyway when all was said and done we now have sisters who have learned a very important lesson and hopefully this won't happen again.  It never ceases to amaze me how they can get themselves into so much trouble because they did not listen to what the President of the Branch told them.  They have been told again if they get themselves into a sticky place again please call us and we will come

     Gas just keeps going down, I have a bet with Dad that when the gas goes down to $1.99 a gallon he owes my $5.00 because he thought that it never get that low and made the bet thinking that I would loose.  It is only about 8 cents to go, I think that I will have the $5.00.(If it hadn't got below $2.00 a gallon she would have never paid me $5.but now that it might get below that she' holding me to the deal. I tell her the bet expires Dec 31, but she said I never said that in the beginning.)

     Thank you all for the wonderful Christmas that we had.  For the gifts, cards, letters phone calls, and skyping, all of that made Christmas a very special day.  We had dinner at the Branch Presidents home it was so much fun to be around children that actually wanted help from us or would talk to us it felt almost like home.  I don't think that this year has been as hard as last Christmas was even with the Edler's taking such good care of us

     Well I have a lot do, one more thing  We gave the talks in Sacrament meeting yesterday.  I was rattled when the Stake President showed up and then gave a 10min. talk.  Good thing my talk was very short because we did not have very much time to give our talks.  They may not start on time but they end on time and you had better not go over that time either.

     Remember that this is the time of new Beginnings and that is not for just Annie, Kurtis and family or Evan Christi and family but this is for everyone  Be of good cheer and have a great new year that is waiting  for you to go forth.

                                                                          Love

                                                        Dad and Mom, Grammy and Papa 

22 December 2014

familyleDDear Family and Friends,

 Dear Family and Friends,

   Oh, my goodness! but Christmas is getting close. I don't know if the goose is getting fat, but I sure am, all these Christmas treats are getting to me. I keep telling myself not to eat so much, but it is all so good I just can't help myself. Saturday we went to Sister Layton's cookie exchange. This is an annual event for her. As we walked into her dining room two huge tables where full to overflowing with platters of cookies. We took a couple of dozen cookies mom had made and brought back about 4 dozen various cookies. It is always a fun event. Sister Layton's cousin's daughter came, she lives in Pocahontas a town about 30 miles to the west, Sister Layton said, "I haven't seem her in 15 years" I thought to myself, these people need to get out more often. Sister Hansen and I have put on over 9000 miles on our car since we left home the end of September. I replaced the rear brakes last month and now my front brakes are telling me that they need to be replaced. Good thing gas prices are coming down. Thursday when we went to the Christmas Zone Conference in Memphis, Tennessee I bought gas for $205.9 a gallon. When gas started going down I bet Sister Hansen $5 bucks that gas wouldn't get under $2 a gallon. It looks like there is a chance I might lose.

       Another member of the branch here passed away Sunday morning, Brother Shorty Lawrence, there is a good reason he was called Shorty, He was under five feet tall. Since I have known him he has always been on oxygen, he always has his tank with him. He and his wife joined the church about 4 years ago. They have multitudes of problems, but that don't deter them. They are always there and they are always sharing the gospel. They have brought in three other families into the church and their influence continues to grow.

        Mom and I have been asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting this next Sunday, Mom also has the 4th Sunday Relief Society lesson to give. Last year we were asked to speak right after we came and then right before we left. This time it's more like we are long time members of the branch and we just have to take our turn. We have really grown to love this little branch, and the members we get to serve with. We love the young missionaries we get to serve with. It is not easy for them, it can get very discouraging at times, it increases our faith as we watch them stick to it. In three weeks we get to go to the temple with three of the wonderful Sisters we got to serve with last year. The tradition here is that the week before the missionaries leave to go home they get to attend a special session just for them at the temple. The temple that is usually closed on Monday's opens for a special session just for the departing missionaries. We have been invited to attend this time because of our special relationship to these Sisters.

      Our thoughts and are hearts are on all of you especially at this Christmas Season. We have to be careful, not to dwell to much on how much we miss all of you.

Mom here. This seems like year that a lot of members of the church and the Senior BEEs are passing away.  Yes, all of them had been hanging by a thread for a long time.  I am so thankful that we have an understanding about death that it isn't the end.  That there is life after death.

   We have now finished with all the Dec. and June birthdays.  It is the 6 month birthday cookies that tend to confuse people but we have seen some delighted people .  Best of all we get to meet more members of the Branch.  Last night was one of those moments, we have never before been able to actually visit with a Sister that is very much less active.  The birthday cookies surprised her and we were invited into her home.  This was the first time that we have visited with her and her husband.  Funny (not funny haha) how showing a little love and concern will soften hearts.  I was glad that I had participated in a cookie exchange, this time I had a lot of different cookies to share for our last three birthdays.  But Jan. and July will soon be here and it will be back to major cookie making.  I make so many cookies when I get home I really have a hard time wanting to make any cookies at all.  Right now I am doing another double batch of Lemon Bread, it is the all time favorite Christmas treat for special people.  I am giving some to my "mom" and my "aunt and uncle" of course they are members of the Senior BEEs that took us in and really made us feel welcomed.  Everyone else accepted us because they did.  Best of all they found out that we are not weird and we don't talk about the church unless they ask.  They have asked for special prayers, blessings, and help and we do pray for them and bless them when they need a little comfort and help.

     It is strange to have warm temps.  Last year by this time we had had our first ice storm and there was snowed piled up and ice still on the road in places.  We have been told that this winter is suppose to be colder then it was last year but so far we haven't been really cold.  But we have a lot of gray days and only a few days of any sunshine.  This weather is so like the western Oregon weather.  I can not remember ever having a white Christmas, but I sure can remember a lot of rainy Christmases.  I would rather have rain then icy roads and freezing cold temps like we had last year.  Of course it is only the first of winter so I guess we do have a couple of month when it could get cold.   I was thinking that it was darker last night.  Actually it is very dark by 5:00pm every night.  We really don't like going out after dark unless we know where we are going, it is to hard to find someone when we can't read the address on a house.

     We are getting excited for Christmas we have packages under the chair that our tree sits on.  I think that we are more excited to see what is in the boxes then what we got for each other.  We hope that you all have a good Christmas.  That you can have a happy time.  Take a moment and think about the first Christmas and what the Birth of Christ means to the world.  Think about past Christmases and how tradition is such a big part of our lives.    We love you, we pray for you and want you to be happy this season.  Make sure to help each other out.  Wish we could be there to help Annie, Kurtis and family to move but someone else will have to that in our place.

                                                       Love to all

                                                Dad and Mom              Grammy and Papa

1 December 2014

Dear Family,

     When we are little it seems like we wait all year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that we are grown up we still wait all year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well Thanksgiving is now officially over, and what a good one it was. It lasted a whole week. As I mentioned on Monday we got to go to the Temple in Memphis with the Sisters from here in Paragould, it was great being with the departing missionaries, most of them we know by sight, some of them we know by name. Elder Breckenridge from Driggs, Idaho still says he will get me a 2T Idaho license plate. Tuesday was our great Thanksgiving Day Dinner following district meeting. That night we went to Greenway, Arkansas for a great Macaroni Dinner with the Cooks. She used three different kinds of cheese, it was delicious, even though we were still stuffed from that afternoon. The elders took seconds, but I noticed our district leader had a hard time making that last bite go down. We were all so stuffed we thought we would never have to eat again. Wednesday I went to the lady barber I used last year when we were in Paragould. She remembered us and even gave Mom a big hug, which surprised  her. We visited with a member who had just lost her father and helped out the best we could. Thursday was the official T-day. We were invited to the Kirksey's for dinner at 1:00 pm. We, Danny Van  Fleet, Sister Kirksey's brother and sister the Kirksey's granddaughter and great granddaughter were all there. Again we ate till we were going to bust. After Dinner Brother Kirksey took Cowboy and me out to show us all his cars and projects he has going on. His shop has more rooms and spaces than mine. Plus 10 times more tools. he told us when he gets all his projects done he is going to tell the Lord "I am all done and now you can take me". Cowboy said "Wow! you are going to live to be a very old man."  The after the relations left we played a rousing game of Phase 10. Wow! is that a long game. Mom won.

   Friday we got up and got ready, packed the car and headed out to Louisville, Kentucky. It was a 6 hour drive. But well worth it. We got to see Sharon, Brad, Megan, Ella, Julian, baby Foster and Megan older unmarried sister from Texas, Lindsey. Megan parents were not there because they are Mission Presidents in California. Saturday was Ella's baptism at 11:00 am, their bishop was there plus a lot of ward members, she was also confirmed then. Ella is very sweet and gives everyone big hugs. I questioned her about maybe running out of hugs some day, but she assured me she would never run out of hugs. Julian (who the call JuJu) is a busy little guy, always on the move, and also very concerned about a lot of thing, he looks like a miniture Brad. Foster is a little snuggler, he loves to be held, a lot. Saturday afternoon Brad took us all down to Ohio River in Louisville, there is an old railroad bridge that crosses the river into Indiana. The trains don't cross there anymore, so it has been turned into a people bridge. The tracks have long been removed and it is a cement walkway. It is very high in the air so a large circular walk way leads up to it. Hundreds of people are crossing it all the time. When we got across the bridge and I finally got to some real soil I knelt down and touched the ground. So now I can say I have been in Indiana. We went to a candy store that Brad and Megan always go to. There where also very crowded streets because a Christmas Parade was about to start. so we stayed for the Parade. A man with a huge white dog named Samantha, told me there was a second hand store down the street, so I walked about five or six blocks to the store. They were still open and they had a stack of old license plates. The guy that owns the shop grew up in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and was very friendly, especially when he found out I was from Idaho. I got 2 Virginia plates, 1 Indiana plate, and two Kentucky plates. It made my day. By the time we got back to the car we must have walked 5 miles. I was a tired boy. Sharon was really tired. On Sunday before church started  the Bishop gave me one of his Kentucky license plates, after Sacrament Meeting where Foster was blessed we headed back to Arkansas, getting in about 5:45 pm. Good to be back.

Mom here. There isn't much to add to this except that as we were driving home we had a lot of wind and 72 degrees was the temp.  There was a cold front that was pushing through and now we are about maybe 38 degrees and raining.  In the part of Kentucky that we were driving through there is mostly Parkways and a Turnpike that we were on.  The little city that Brad and Meagan live in was established in 1789.  It is a relatively new subdivision but the roads are narrow and twisty.  Sharon says it is because they wanted more homes less good streets.  The chapel is big, they have two wards and a branch that meet there.  According to Brad that there are several churches in the Louisville area and at least three stakes or more in just the area that they are living in.They are trying to find a job closer to home so far nothing.  There are about five other LDS dentist who have graduated from dental school so they are thinking of going back to Utah or some place closer and open up a dental office where they all work.  I think for what it is worth that they would do better if they found a dentist that was already established.  Because some time down the line there could be a lot of friction trying to work together and making the practice work.

     Well we are home and glad to be and already back into the missionary mode.  We have transfers this week .  Apparently we are going to Memphis to pick up a another Sister so there will be a threesome for about a week and a half.  We still don't know which areas are going to be closed or who will be put where and I guess we will wait and see just like everyone else.

     Well we have related everything that has been going on with us and I have laundry that needs to be finished.  Take care and remember there is only 24 days before christmas we hope that you are ready.  There is no Christmas music on the radio, we couldn't believe it.

                                                                Love

                                                           Dad and Mom   Grammy and Papa

15 December 2014

Dear Family,

Not sure how much time we will have tomorrow, so we will start a letter tonight. Monday through Friday we work at the Senior Bees packaging "meals on wheels", they do about a hundred a day. We leave here about 9:10 am every morning and work for about a half and hour. Mom and I have these nice aprons I ordered on line that we wear each day. Mom's is red and mine is green of course. I also ordered on line these cute little chef's caps, they are white and made of cloth with an elastic in the back, so one size fits all. We both wore them, until I was at the local John Deere Dealer and one of the salesman gave me a nice green John Deere cap with their Legacy Equipment logo on it. Now I wear that each day. The main cook at the center covets my cap. We both wear cheap throw away gloves. Cleanliness is important you know. (except the other day I was dipping up gravy onto the meat dish and pop! my name tag pops off right into the gravy, very embarrasing. It was clean and I fetched it right out, hope no one got sick from my name tag.) The lady that help put the dinner trays into insulated bags, said "That's Okay later when I get hungry I can just lick the gravy off the nametag." It's a fun bunch that we work with. Brother Billy Mode an old retired widower volunteers each day at the center also. Sometimes he has to work at the pantry on the other side of the building so I take over his job crimping the lids onto the trays with a hand run slammer. It is important not to have your fingers in the way when you slam the handle down. The day my name tag popped into the gravy I was doing five things, first I put the gravy on the meat, then I put the lid on the tray, then I dent the sides of the tray inward, then I put the tray in the slammer, then slammed it and gave them to the lady to put into the insulated bags. There is an oven in the kitchen that they heat up stove bricks (the kind that we have in the wood stoves at home). Each morning before we start dishing up the meals we put two hot stove bricks into the bottom of each bag. Then a plastic tray goes on top of the bricks then two alumimun dinners then another tray then two more dinners, until there are about 18 trays into the bag. Then the lid is zipped tight and it stays that way until the meals get delivered to the homes. The bricks keep the meals warm. There are five routes and five vans and five drivers.

Mom here   This time around we have spent time in hospitals visiting sick people,or people who are recovering from surgeries.  We also do what Pres. Milne calls us to take care of.  So we have found wood for a family and then with the Elders help took it out to the family and stacked it.  I stayed With Sister Charles and just let her talk about her deceased husband.  The wood and the pickup came from her and the Elders and Dad did not need my help.  We have actually gone with the Elders to less active members home and they came with us to take birthday cookies and dried fruit to another less active family.  This the first time that we have been asked to go any where with them, so it was good.  We certainly spend more time with the Elders then the Sisters.  We are their transportation and I know that we have already talked about that.  I am glad that we are not going all the way to Little Rock this week.  Last week was Zone meeting in Searcy on Wed. then on Thurs. we went to Little Rock for a Senior couples Christmas dinner.  By Friday we were tired but we still had places to go and birthday cookies to deliver.   This week we take Sister Huefner to Searcy and then on Wed we get to go to Memphis and that is only one and a half hours of travel time.  Searcy is two hours away but Little Rock is three hours away.  By the time we drive to Little Rock, stay about three hours then drive home again we have been gone for nine hours.  But I'm not complaining (much) we are helping our Elders and Sisters learn better how to be effective missionaries

     It is hard to believe that it is Dec.  We have had warm temps. for the last 6  weeks.  It is strange to have 51 degrees and today lovely sunshine.  We have had more fog the usual and cloudy days with rain but never gets very cold.  So unlike last year when we had an ice storm and snow on the ground this time of the year.  I like it warmer, the sun can really heat up our apartment so that we don't need to have the heat on all the time.  When the sun goes down it does get chilly but not freezing cold.

     I am singing in our Branch's little choir which is made up of mainly missionaries. The Elders have a harder time, if Elder Brich could find a good enough excuse he would decline singing in the choir.

     The Christmas season really starts moving faster now but we want you to know that we are doing what we know to be right.   We know that Jesus is the Savior of the world and he wants us to be happy and to choose the right.  We love you all

                                                 Mom and Dad

                                                Grammy and Papa

8 December 2014

Dear Family,                                                                                       December 8, 2014

     The sisters had to use our computers today and so we are very late in getting our stuff done.  I made cookies for the next two weeks while we were waiting.  I really want to get the Christmas cards out this week.  But we have zone meeting Wed. at Searcy then we have the Senior missionary meeting on Thurs. at the mission home in North Little Rock.  It seems like we are on the road a lot these next two weeks.  Sister Huefner is leaving on Dec. 15 and we are taking her to the mission home that day.  I’m not sure how everything is going down with three Sisters going to Little Rock with us.  There is a Time Out for Sister Missionaries going on also.  I don’t think that I will be involved since my companion is Dad and I would have to spend the night with I don’t know who.  This is one of the activities that I could easily forgo.  We learned the last time that we are usually  not included in activities that are for just the Elders and Sisters.  We provide rides nothing more and that is fine with us.

     The weather here has been interesting to say the least.  It got really warm and on Fri. we had rain for most of the day.  That night we had a major thunder and lightening storm.  At first we couldn’t figure out what the noise was then Dad opened the sliding glass door to our balcony and we could see what was going on.  We have been told that they had a tornado on Christmas Eve.  That is so totally different from Idaho’s weather.  It gets cold when the skies are clear and then it starts to warm up and rains and then we start the cycle again.

     There have been some changes in the way that the Branch is moving since we now have a new Branch President.  He is a lawyer and is very organized.  He desires to follow the handbook and refers to it in our meetings.  Our Branch mission leader is totally different from what we had last time that we were here.  We now identify who in the Branch  either should be or who would be willing to work with all the inactives and new members. This is the first time that there has been such a concerted effort and I am glad to see this beginning to work.  Missionaries come and go but the members are always there and they have to pick up the ball and go forward.  The Relief Society Pres. is supportive as is the Elders Quorum Pres. so it makes it better for everyone.

     We have a lot of potluck dinners so of course everyone comes.  We had one for Thanksgiving and we now have had one for the Christmas Devotional.  There is always lots of food and most of the left over food is sent home to the missionaries.  This time all three sets had food sent home with them.

    We are doing pretty well.  We are healthy and keeping busy  Our new District leader is trying to get used to a small building and few people.  He has already made one investigator mad but I think that that has been taken care of.  It has to be hard to come to an area that he really doesn’t know  or the people that he will be working with. 

Dad here: Wednesday we picked up the Elder Wahl and Elder Cook at 6:15 am and drove to the Mission home in North Little Rock. All the missionaries from this half the state were there. It was a big meeting. We had 12 new missionaries coming into the mission. They pretend like they know what’s going on, but I am sure they are as lost as we were when we came out. We had 21 missionaries returning home. So the mission president gets up and makes assignments of who is going where and with whom. The missionaries know which one are being transferred they just don’t know where till then. So Elder Wahl knew he was being transferred. So we took all of his stuff down with us in our trunk along with his bike. We got it all to fit. Of course we had to take his wheels off of his bike and put them in separately. Our new district leader is Elder Brich. We couldn’t get his bike to fit all the way into the trunk, his seat was really high and it took an allen wrench to losen it, but no one had one and mine was here in the apartment. So we bungeed the trunk closed. It great to be with a lot of the missionaries. Our district is made up of the Pocahontas and Paragould missionaries. Sister Elder from Pocahontas was leaving for home Her companion Sister Somers (the smallest sister in the mission) was being transferred to another area, so they closed down the sister’s area in Pocahontas.  We got to met Sister Kalihiki at transfers, we also got to met Sister Cooke from last year. It was good to visit with both on them. On the way back to Paragould we stopped at Searcy and ate at a buffet with the Elders, they seem to enjoy being fed especially if they are not paying for it. We got back late that afternoon. The Sister from here went to Memphis for transfers. We didn’t lose either of them, they just picked up another Sister that is staying with them. They are in a threesome. The new Sister is Sister Foster from Nampa, Idaho. She attended church in Jill’s building in Nampa. We like her, well we like all the missionaries that we are serving with. The Sister were over today using our computers to write their emails home. So we are getting ours done very late this evening. I had probably better quit so we can get this letter sent off.

Love all you guys Take care of yourselves. Love Elder and Sister Hansen