Dear Family and Friends,
To quote from "Bye, Bye Birdie" 'The day I knew would come at last, has come at last'. this is our last Monday in Arkansas, at least on this Mission. Mom has boxes strung all over the house. I will need something and ask her, "where's this" she will say "oh, I packed that away." Yesterday at church our mission president showed up. he was interviewing the missionaries in Paragould. So we had our closing interview. Thankfully he came at the third hour of church, so we were able to give our Sacrament Meeting talks, without worrying about him being there to hear us. In some ways it is really hard to leave here. This place and these people have become a big part of our lives.
This is funny, at least I think so. Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed my 'Old Spice' deodorant stick on a shelve above the toilet. I noticed some writing on the back and read it. It says: 'Contains odor fighting "atomic robots" that "shoot lasers" at your "stench monster" and replaces them with fresh, clean, masculine "scent elves" '. That is funny.
Last night we were watching a PBS documentary on history and the Bible. On the program it said that concept of a one god teaching didn't come about untill about 1200 BC, before that all people believed in the multiple gods and idols concept. They had their religious scholars and archealogist spouting off all these facts and discoveries. Finally we couldn't take it any more and turned it off. I'm reading in "The Pearl of Great Price' right now. So I read Moses chapter 6 right before going to bed. I am so thankful for the restoration of the gospel, I'm so thankful for the Prophet Joseph Smith. I'm so thankful for all the truths that were restored through him. I haven't spent years digging up ancient ruins nor spent years studying ancient script, but I do know light and truth when I see it. So thankful for all the light and truth that has been restored.
Saturday the branch elders quorum had a shooting activity. It was scheduled for last fall and most of the branch showed up for it, but the gun range was closed because turkey season had opened and they were afraid all the shooting would disturb the wild turkeys in the area. So Saturday was a good day and they held the activity. This time we only had about half the people that turned out last fall. Mom stayed home and packed and cleaned, I rode out with Cowboy, although neither of us shot any guns we did have a good time socializing and eating grilled hot dogs. One of the guys had a 50 caliber gun. I don't know much about guns and I don't know what 50 caliber means, I only know when that gun went off, it was like someone set off a stick of dinamite. I was 30 feet away and had in ear plugs, but the concussion physically hit me.
Mom here The packing goes slowly onward. Sister Kirksey offered to come and help me pack and clean the apartment then she said that since she doesn't want us to leave so soon she maybe won't help. I think that most of the packing and cleaning I can take care of without a lot of help. If I waited until the last min. then things would end up just being thrown into containers and I wouldn't know where anything was. I'm hoping that the few things that will be left here will help when it comes to loading up the car.
We have completed all the things that we were called to do. We have done our ahomteaching\ Visiting teaching, Dad taught his last Sunday school lesson, I have taught my last 4th Sun. lesson and we gave our farewell talks yesterday. All of the birthday cookies have been delivered and I made cookies for the seniors Sat., that they will get today. We still have to pick up our Arkansas flowers that I am really excited about. I am going to put in an Arkansas flower bed where the sign is. That spot always has weeds so I am going to try to fix that this spring.
We have made so many friends here and it is hard to leave them behind but it is time for us to go home. I guess the 6 months is good because no one get tired of us before we leave again. We didn't have the tears as much this time but it was still hard to say goodbye to everyone again. They wanted us to promise that we would be back but I'm not sure that is even going to happen. Actually I am ready to stay at home and do our last 6 months at home, not sure about Dad tho'.
We still have missionary work to do. We have our last District meeting tomorrow at the church. Elder Cook said that it was going to be a farewell party but I will be very surprised if he really means that. Wed night it is our turn to do the Scripture class, I don't just want to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon randomly and then discuss what it is talking about, most of all that comes meaning the three sets of missionaries should already know what the scripture is saying.so I would like to try something a little differently. I'm not sure if it will work or not. President Wakolo wanted all the missionaries to read the New Testament. Then using the New Testament we were to show how Christ taught the same thing in the Americas by using the Book of Mormon. I hope that makes sense but anyway that seems to work better here in the Bible Belt area.
We saved a little boys life Thurs. late afternoon. The weather was very warm and the little boy went outside without any supervision because his babysitter was fast asleep in the house. This little boy decided to either cross the street or to play in the street we don't know which since he might have been 18months old. Thank goodness the other drivers on this very busy street saw him also so most everyone came to a stop. We pulled over and I chased him back to his front porch and then I started looking for the care giver. The older brother or what ever was sound asleep with the door wide open waiting for a little boy a way outside. It was a tragedy waiting to happen so we were able to help this little boy.
Well my dears this will be the last letter that you will be getting from Paragould Arkansas We have enjoyed writing to you, I guess that we have to depend on phone calls when get home
Love Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Hansen
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