New Years Day with the Floods of York

I think this is my house!

So this week has been a week full of amazing service opportunities that’s for sure. As I mentioned in last weeks email, York was hit with a pretty bad flood and well this week was the aftermath week, which turned out to be a pretty good week for us. So lets get into the stories! 

On January 1st, we spent the entire day helping people out. The first was supposed to be a day off for us missionaries to do what we wanted, however we spent the whole day serving people, which was just as good if not better. We put on our helping hands vest and we went and helped people clear out their homes, and move furniture and all. The flooding was so bad that it filled all of the sewage lines as well, so all the water was mixed in with the city’s sewage, so everything smelt like really really bad. So with that we did a lot of throwing things away, couches, clothes, furniture all of it was gone. Which really turned out to be quite fun, because we were given permission to rip some couches apart and that was pretty fun. So that turned out to be quite a fun day for all of us elders, given permission to destroy stuff. So that was really cool!

Then the church was turned into a flood relief station. So this week all of us missionaries took shifts and turns serving at the chapel helping people come donate items and also helping people collect things as well that they needed. So it was really awesome the things that came in and the amount of help and service that the community was willing to give. And a lot of people who never knew who the Mormons were, are now walking into the building, talking to the missionaries, and receiving aid all at the same time. It really was quite the missionary experience, and you will be able to see all the things that the church has collected of the past week in my pictures. Now the floods are dying down, and the church is still giving out things, but York is getting back into its normal routine, and let’s hope that it stays that way! 

So some missionary experiences that happened this past week one funny story and one awesome story! We will start with the funny story first. Me and Elder Von Cannon were out knocking on some doors and we came across this house, yes it was actually a house on its own, not a flat! Pretty rare here in England! So we knocked on the door, and this really old lady comes to the door and says "go around to the back I can’t find the keys" so that’s what we did. However there was no way around the house, it was all fenced off, so she gets back there and goes "where are you?" we didn’t know how to get back there, until eventually she told us to go through the garage!  So we went through finally and had a nice conversation with this 89 yr old lady named D.......! She was really nice, but had no interest in the church, so we left after a good conversation, back through the garage of course! Well, we are in the garage and we go to open the garage door and guess what it does open! Now here garage is a two door garage on hinges, so like a regular door, just massive! So I go to push it open and it doesn’t move! I pushed as hard as I could and nothing!! We were in there for a solid 4 min, before we realized we were stuck in an old ladies garage, and we could not get out! So finally I knew that there was one option! So yes I kicked the door, and kicked it again, and finally I got the door open, and we ran away but it was a really awkward experience. Don’t worry her door still works, but I think my ego went down quite a bit. Never get stuck in an old ladies garage, it’s really awkward. 

Being Ninja at night- why won't people on the street talk to me?! 

Onto the more serious topic. We met this man this week named J............ We knocked on his door the same day that we met D.......... And well he is a 30 yr old engineer, who isn't married and looking for something new in life! We knocked on his door he let us in and we taught him the first lesson, he had a lot of great questions and was really interested in what we had to say! He liked it and said that we could come back next week. So this week we are hoping to go back and invite him to be baptized, so I am really looking forward to that! The lord really does prepare people and I am hoping that he is one of them! I know that the lord is in this work and provides a way for everything. I love this church and I love this mission! Happy Birthday to my Brother Ammon on January 7th, if you see him wish the lad a happy birthday!!! Love you all, and the Church is true! 

Love Elder Hanks