Finger surgery take 2

Ty had to go in for a skin graft on the back of his damaged finger. The surgeon hoped to take some skin from the inside of his forearm (near his elbow) and patch the dead skin on the back of his finger. Unfortunately, he said, "There was no live tissue. Only 'goo' covering the nerves and tendons." The good news is, the tendon looked 'surprisingly good'. So, the surgeon took a flap of skin from Ty's middle finger and wrapped it over his ring finger. Then he put a skin graft on the middle finger. The fingers will be sewn together for 3 weeks and then separated once the new skin has attached itself and had a chance to heal. It is a miracle to me that this was able to be repaired and the skill the doctors use to accomplish their task. I am grateful for their willingness to help others. What a noble profession.

Skype Rocks

Christmas was a little subdued this year. I think all of us are missing Eric. It is good to have Ty home again and Lauren and Devin also had a sleepover with us on Christmas Eve. We thought it would be easier because Eric was calling us at 7am!! It was 3pm in Africa and he had appointments all evening. He was so clear on the computer and we could hear him perfectly. Skype is amazing! It is hard to believe he is on the other side of the world.

His companion is Elder Bradley Davis, from Sandy, Utah. They are working hard, but rarely knock doors because they are currently living with the mission president in a gated community. He said he is in one of the nicest areas of town. Which means most of their contacts are on the street or the bus. They have a baptism scheduled for Saturday. Eric is hopeful it will come through. He feels pretty confident as he teaches discussions. Understanding the language is still difficult, but he is starting to pick things up.

He played soccer Christmas morning with the other Elders. He said he has never sweat so much! It is very hot and humid in Luanda. He told us about the people and the food. He often doesn't know what he is eating, but the members feed them every night. His branch had 120 people attend last week and the president is getting ready to split it. There are no church buildings yet and they only have small buildings to meet in.

Eric looked so happy. We are so proud of the sacrifice he is making to bring others to Christ.

Merry Christmas

Congrats Laur

My little Lauren graduated today with a 3.9 GPA with a bachelor of science degree in dental hygiene. I am so proud of her for completing this goal. She will be an amazing health professional. LOVE that girl!

Adjusting to Africa

I am still adjusting to everything and the language still is a barrier but everything keeps getting better and better. We have a tough new area but we are working hard. We have about 4 progressing investigators right now and one that is getting baptized on the 29th so that will be sweet! We mostly just try to find people to teach right now and get used to the area. It is tough living in Angola but I am having a good time. I can't wait to be able to start understanding to be able to get a feel of what the people really are like and everything. So most of  these pictures are a part of my area that I am in a lot. 

Some funny things that happened this week: rode in a taxi with a couple goats sitting next to me on the seat, taught a guy that was drunk out of his mind, a lady was breast feeding right next to me in sunday school, guy pulled out a gun in a taxi and joked around like he was going to take our money, scored my first goal in Africa!

Don't worry about me at all. I am doing great. I can't wait to talk to you next week! I love you so much and tell everyone else I love them too. I hope you all have a great Christmas


Love you and Merry Christmas!

I am so excited to talk to Eric next week. He has had quite a culture shock. I am so proud of him!

AFRICA!

After a day and a half of travel, Elder Hannay has arrived in Africa. His companion is from Sandy, UT and he is currently preparing to open a new area. Which means he has no apartment and is temporarily living with the President and his wife.

Here is his first email.

 Hey mom and dad! I survived my first week in Luanda! This place is insane! It really isn't the Africa you expect though. It is weird because there are some really rich people here and some really poor. It is pretty much just a big crappy city. There is garbage everywhere and no one really takes care of anything. People do pretty much whatever they want here to haha. People (including women) just go to the bathroom wherever they want on the side of the roads and stuff. People drive however they want also. I don't think there is a speed limit and I have no clue how there aren't more accidents here because of how crazy people drive. People are constantly crossing the road right in front of cars also including us missionaries. It is kind of scary and crazy. One elder got hit by a motorcycle and flew like fifteen feet last night but he is doing fine. To get around we ride in these big blue vans that are taxis. You get in the ones that are going to certain places and pay like two bucks each time. They honestly have like twenty poeple in them every time. People sometimes sit in the window. You have to get real cozy in them.There are a lot of drunk people here also. Beer is cheaper than water so people drink all the time. I love the kids here. They are awesome. They always yell amigo to me (which means they are calling me Chinese because of the way they say it) and give me a thumbs up or run up to me and say levanta and I throw them up in the air it's so cool. I can't tell you much about the people because I can't understand them but they are really nice and are always interested in what we have to say. People always stare at us. I am opening up a new area and it is kind of like a suburb and it is supposed to be a nice place of the city. We have also been in some really rough areas in my area also though. I will try to send some few pictures that I got of some of the places I have taught in. I can't really take many pictures because I have to hide it when I do because I can get robbed easily if they see. It has been an awesome but tough first week. I have seen so many crazy things already and too many to write in this email.  I got two blisters on both my feet the first day and I have been walking on them ever since and we walk soooo much. Also every day you are seriously drenched in sweat as soon as you walk out the door because it is so hot and humid. Luckily we get to live with president and there house is supposed to be really nice compared to the others. The other houses don't have energy or water a lot I guess and everyone says that we are very lucky to live here. It is really weird living with the president though but I am very grateful. We eat at members houses a lot and like every time it is very nasty with flies all around the food. It is rough but I get the food down. I also have no clue what anyone is saying here. They speak so fast and say a lot of different things. They say angolan portugues is ghetto portugues. I am working really hard though and I hope it gets better soon. I am sure it will. I would tell you a lot more about all the crazy things I have experienced here but there are too many. I hope you got a pretty good idea of what it is like. I will try and send pictures. I miss you all a lot and I hope everything is well with you at home. I will do some recordings and send them to you next week. Keep me in your prayers! Love you all and miss you!

I am trying not to worry too much. I know the Lord will keep him safe. Pray for him!

Thanksgiving in the MTC

Eric got his Visa to Angola. He leaves on Monday, December 3rd. He will have a layover in Dallas and a 12 hour layover in London. We hope he gets to do some sight seeing during that time! Here are a few tidbits from his last letter.

They said we have our Visas so we should be all set to head out! I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time. I know it might be kind of rough for a while but I know it will be an amazing experience. I can't wait to call you when I leave. We leave Monday at 5:00 a.m. and get there at 4:30 in the morning on Wednesday so its going to be a loooong trip. We have a twelve hour layover in London and like a four hour one in Dallas.
I have the mailing address for Angola:

Elder Eric R. Hannay
Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos S.U.D.
Caixa Postal 18404
Luanda Angola

It sounds like you had a great Thanksgiving. I had a good one too. We had Elder Holland come and talk in a devotional. He is amazing! It was a time I will never forget. After that we did some service for Mali or something. It is a country in Africa. Then at night we watched 17 miracles. It was an awesome day. 

Thanksgiving in CO

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spent with my sister Michelle at their home in Durango. My other sister Nicole, Mom & Dad, and Weston also attended.
We went to the movies (loved seeing Twilight - girls only!)
We had a non-traditional turkey bowl,

 

decorated gingerbread houses,

and had an overall fabulous time!

Hosting a friend

Some friends sent this pic after they dropped their son off at the MTC Wed. The message with the pic said, "Your son was a blessing to our family today!" Eric was hosting (2 missionaries greet each family dropping off an Elder at the curb of the MTC) and one his basketball buddies and best friends family pulled up! Logan Parker was on the basketball team with Eric and is the brother of Eric's best friend Lawson Parker!

Eric later said,

Ya I was hosting last week and they pulled up right in front of my spot. It was awesome! I gave them all big hugs and hosted Logan. I think I get to do it one more time because we don't have new missionaries coming in Thanksgiving week. After last Wednesday so many missionaries came in. Its packed! I can't imagine how it is going to be after next week. That's so cool that everyone is getting their calls.

De-gloved

Ty's buddy called me on Saturday afternoon and told me Ty cut his finger playing basketball. He said they were taking him to the Jordan Valley Hospital. I told him to go to the Instacare instead, "Cuz it's cheaper." So a few minutes later I get another call, this time from Ty. He said, "Mom, they said they can't help me here. So they are sending me to the Riverton Hospital where there is a hand surgeon." Mom alarm going off in my head. I knew at this point the "cut" was pretty serious. I met him at the Riverton Hospital ER where the Dr. told us he could lose his finger. This was what I saw when I arrived.

You can see from the picture it is pretty gross. His finger became tangled in the net as he went up for a dunk. The weight of his body ripped the skin from the middle knuckle to the tip of his right hand ring finger. It was like a large flap of skin from each side of his fingernail. He said when he looked down he saw his bones and just flipped the skin back where it belonged and headed out the door. Some of the guys playing with him didn't even know he was injured. Luckily a couple buddies drove with him.

The Dr. at Riverton said he needed the special microscopic tools at the Murray IHC and asked if we could take Ty there to have the surgery to repair the damage. We agreed. I called Mom and Dad and they agreed to meet us at our home so Dad & Steve could give Ty a blessing before the surgery. They raced right over and actually beat us to the house. (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

After 4 hours of surgery under the microscope, using thread so thin the nurse couldn't see it, Ty's veins, arteries, tendons, and nerves had all been reattached. I am so thankful for amazing Doctors who are able to perform such miracles.

Ty was then put into a room to recover.

He had to just lay there keeping his hand elevated with an I.V. in. 

He did get a little bored...

But overall was a good patient. The nurses all loved him. He had to go 2 times a day to get treatments in a hyperbaric chamber. It was a tube that they slid him in and pressurized it and filled it with oxygen. He had to stay in there for 2 hours at a time. He said it was boring and his ears popped a lot. But it helped oxygenate the tissue and help it heal. We got a peek at the stitches after 2 days.

The skin looked a little soggy. Lots of stitches!

Here is how it looked a couple days later.

It is really black. But the Dr. said that a lot of tissue died and new skin was growing underneath.

Stay tuned for more updates!

5th week

Hey mom and dad! That's so nice to hear everything is going well. That's crazy that Lauren took that test. I hope she did well too. Tell me how it goes. Tell Nate to write me and tell me how all my friends are doing and how school is. I'm glad Ty got my letter. Thank you so much for that package and that coat. That coat is so nice and it's perfect thank you so much and I'm sure it will be so nice to have. That would be so nice to get some more ties because I want to start trading. I don't really care. Maybe a few bucks so i could buy some treats here? Whatever you can do would be great! I am going to try the voice recorder thing today so let me know how it works. I'm doing great here. I will only have three weeks left after tomorrow I think. It's crazy! Nate just left to go to the Columbian MTC. I hope he gets there safely. I love you all and miss you!

4th week

Hey mom, Hey dad! Everything is going good here. Thanks so much for the Dear Elder. You're right it was nice to get a letter. I doubt we will do anything for Halloween but, oh well. Happy Halloween to you too and I hope you have a fun one. The language is still challenging for me but I am getting it. Everything else is going good and we had a fun day yesterday. The head Senator from Namibia or something came and visited the twelve apostles and then he wanted to come to the MTC to see what it's all about. His country is right below Angola so he came and talked to our district. It was awesome. He had a body guard with him and some presidents from BYU I and SUU came with him along with the Pres of the MTC and they asked us questions about our missions and why we are serving. It was awesome because he was really shocked. I hope we represented missionaries well. They took pictures of us and I think they are going to get a list of emails from us so you might get a picture of us soon. Other than that everything is the same at the MTC. Thanks and love you!

Eric with high school buddy Nate White (going to Columbia).

3rd week NYC

Eric had to go to NYC to apply for his Visa in person at the Angola consolate. They flew there on a red eye flight and arrived early in the morning. They took a brief tour of NYC before heading to apply for the Visas. Eric got to call us from the airport. It was great to hear his voice! He is doing so great with his new language. He and Steve carried on a conversation!

Hey mom,
Ya it was an exhausting trip but it was awesome and it was so good to get out of the MTC for a while and to talk with you guys. 

2nd week

Hey Mom! That's awesome that Austin got his call to Mexico. That's really cool to hear about how everyone else and you are doing also. I hope everyone is doing good. I'm having a good time here. I am really getting used to the life here. My companions name is Elder Chatwin. He is from Mesa, Arizona and he says he played soccer volleyball and did swimming in high school. I played soccer with him though and he wasn't very good at all so who knows. He is a good kid though with a great testimony. We still aren't the best match out there but we get along fine. Portuguese is going pretty good. It is tough because the teacher has only been speaking it since the first day and we are already teaching 30 min lessons with no notes so it's tough to know what to say sometimes. Its crazy how much we have already learned though and I hope it keeps going well. The days are going by pretty fast here now and I keep getting more and more excited to get out in the field. I just found out I am going to be going to New York in a week or two to go get my visa. That should be pretty cool and it will be a nice break. I'll try to send some pictures to you. I love you and miss you all!!
Elder Hannay

Elder Eric Hannay

Eric wants letters!!!

Elder Eric Hannay
MTC Mailbox #178
MOZ-MAP 1203
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

1st letter

Tell everyone I miss them and love them. I am doing a lot better now. My first four days were really rough but now I am a lot more happy and the days are going by much faster so don't worry about me at all and just keep writing me telling me how things are going and I'll be alright. I've gotten a lot more comfortable with my companion also. He is a very hard person to be with all the time but we'll get along alright. He is having a rough time though and I feel bad for him. I am trying to help him the best I can. He just misses his family a lot and it's tough on him. I have felt the Lord help me a lot already in only my first week. It's amazing to see that.

Elder Pics

Eric Sr. pics

Provo Beach Resort

We went to the Provo Beach Resort for Eric's birthday. FUN FUN FUN

Farewell

X-ray

We spent some time this afternoon getting some things done for Eric's visa to Angola.

Here he is getting ready for his chest x-ray to prove he doesn't bring Tuberculosis with him. (No he hasn't got his missionary haircut yet...)

He also had to get a letter of "good citizenship" from the South Jordan Police Dept. I thought the shots were going to be the worst part. Lots of paperwork for missionaries going to Africa!

Angola

Eric received a letter from his mission president informing him that he will be serving his entire mission in the country of Angola. We have been encouraged as we research the country of Angola. First the flag seems a little less violent...

only a machete instead of a big gun.

Also, the capital city where most of the 24 missionaries live seems pretty civilized. There is even a KFC! Eric was excited to see the city, with apartments instead of the huts and dirt roads we saw in Mozambique. They post regularly to a blog which Eric loved reading. Even though the church is in it's infancy there, Eric can have success and be a real pioneer for the church in Angola.

Working Girl

For the last 21 years I have been working at the toughest, but most rewarding job ever - being a stay home Mom. Now that my baby Nate is starting his senior year of high school and Eric is soon off to Africa, I have accepted an offer to go back to work full time.

Steve told me the Eastern Region Dealer Relations Manager was leaving and thought I should apply for the position. After working part time in the marketing department a couple years ago, I knew this would be a great job for me. I have to market the bank's loan products, strengthen dealer relationships, and increase fundings for the bank. (Lots of wining, dining, and general schmoozing.) Not only will I have a 35 hour work week, but I can set my own hours. (I'm thinking 7:30-3:30 while Nate is at school.) I get a phone, an expense account, and get to see the east side of the country. I will be traveling 6+ times per year at my discretion. I will be in a different area of the bank than Steve, (he is over the lending dept.) but I still get to see him and go to lunch everyday!

They were generous enough to let me start at the end of summer. So, I am making the most of my life of leisure until Aug. 20th! (Thank goodness, I was getting REALLY bored!)

Genealogy.... Done!

Ok maybe not ALL done, but...
We went to the Riverton Family History Library for YM/YW last night. After a not so brief introduction to the New Family Search Website, they turned the kids loose to log in and see their ancestors and even got to create a cool "fan chart" with 9 generations.

Top is mine, bottom is Steve's. So, 10 generations for Nate. Fun.

 Well, as computer savy teens often do, Nate started exploring the website on his own and decided to see how far back our record went. So he did. ALL THE WAY TO ADAM & EVE!!!

I thought this couldn't be. Some of the workers said they could be bogus, others said if you tap into a royal blood line, it may be possible. Who knows but it was still FUN! (Thank you to the super human who accomplished this if it is legit!)

So all you Rosses, if you want to do this for a fun Sun. night activity or FHE. The line he traced back is the Barss line (darkest green).

This fan chart shows all the way back to Josiah Bearse. Go to new.familysearch and login. Click on the "Me and My Ancestors" tab. Right under the family tree logo in the top left you can change the page view to "Family Tree". This populates the family tree we are all familiar with. Along the right edge of the chart there are brown arrows which allow you to "go back another generation".

Go back along the Barss line. Alexander Barss, Joseph Henry Barss, Caleb Nickerson Barss, George Bears, Benjamin Bearse, Josiah Bearse, Joseph Bearce... so far this has been easy. You just choose the top brown arrow each time.

Now it gets a little tricky. You have to choose the bottom ancestor once you get to Richard Rock Taylor.

Now back to easy, just choose the top or only choice starting with John Taylor (1), Thomas J Second Taylor (2) and keep going 8 generations. After a few generations Taylor changes to Parker. Stop when you get to Thomas Parker. This time you have to choose the bottom (Sir) John Burley.

 Then it's back to choosing the top arrow for 10 generations until you get to John Croy Grey. Notice his parents are shown, but you can only click the bottom line Osbern Crepon Steward of Normandy.

After that keep choosing the top. About 40 generations from Osbern is Jacob (Rachel). About 12 more is Noah. Right after Noah is Lamech/Betenos and (Henoch) Enoch/Edni "Edna". Choose the bottom (Henoch).

 Then back to choosing the top arrow 7 more generations to ADAM and EVE. (That's more than 65 generations!)

Hope this wasn't too confusing. It is so fun to see each one pop up. Along the right edge you can see details about any person (birth year and where in the world they lived) by clicking their name. SO COOL.