Rain, Rain, Rain, Baptism and there is some duck feet in there too!

Oct 17 2016

Well team not going to lie, I think that it rained every single day this week, and some days it was a little much. Newcastle is so weird it starts out with blue skies, so you bring a light coat because it's a little cold. Then out of NOWHERE a torrential downpour of rain for a solid 10 min. Then back to blues skies, light rain here and then, and then another downpour. Hahaha what is going on!?? Gotta love England right.

Well family I can't really say that very much happened this week for us over here in the Newcastle branch so I think this is going to be a short but sweet letter. So one thing that happened this week was we had our interviews with President. President Turvey is so amazing I can only imagine what it must be like to be a Mission President.  He is so awesome though I loved being able to talk just one on one with President.

One thing that happened this week was that I corrected and revised a CVC (which is a resume in America) for our friend C….M….. this week. It was fun I haven't corrected something since being back in York with Elder Chen, so that was a nice addition to the week, if any of you guys need some revision help, I'm your go to guy! But this week was pretty busy for us prepping for our BAPTISM!!!🌊💦💧🌊💦🤘🙌🏼

So Saturday morning was an exciting time for us, as we headed to the chapel to begin to fill up the font for our baptism at 12. (Had to do it early for Stake Conference) but we went and bought all the food, set up the chairs and got the programs all sorted! And man let me just tell you this baptism was First Class. It went sooo good! C…..M…… came early (brought a friend too) already doing missionary work!:) we took some pictures and then everyone showed up and it was Awesome! And at the baptism the other elders investigator came and he said that after the baptism he wanted to be baptized as well! So they should be getting a baptism at the end of the month! Yay work is going forward for the Chinese district! Picture number 1 shows you my excitement/stress before the baptism and picture number 2 shows my excitement after the baptism! Ahhh best day ever and then he was confirmed a member and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Wow it was the best thing ever! Love love love being a missionary. 

Then to end the almost perfect week we had Stake Conference and we had a really cool meeting. All the missionaries and all the recent converts in the Stake met with the Stake Presidency, President and Sister Turvey, and a seventy Elder Adler and his wife. And we got to hear every conversion story in the room, it was absolutely one of the most spiritual and amazing experiences to hear how this people came to know, all because missionaries or a friend introduced them into the gospel. It was absolutely amazing! And the newest member C…….M……. stood up and in his simple and broken English his gratitude towards us and his excitement to be a member of the church. Best feeling ever! Well family and friends good week this week, looking forward to a great week next week. Hope you all had a wonderful week and we will talk to you all next week! Stay tuned next week to hear about our Meeting with President Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve and Potentially another baptism!:) love you all

Love

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Pictures

1. C...M....'s baptism

2. How I felt after the baptism

3. Our sweet setup

4. Saying bye to our member V...... who went home today!:(

Oct 10 2016

Hey hey hey!!!!! Monday was a normal day for us, elder Zheng wanted to go do some window shopping so we went and look at the priciest stores in Newcastle and well they were definitely posh stores. The cheapest tie that I saw in the stores was £69 ($84.00) ! Yes people for a tie, I do not understand. But then with the extra time that we had we went to this store called Primark! Primark is absolutely amazing! So cheap and has English style everything. So we went there got a flat tie, with the four elders and then we ended at the chapel.

Tuesday was a day of first that is for sure. So every Tuesday me and elder Zheng go and do service for this place. But before we do service they always feed us proper, proper Cantonese food. And we'll this week I showed up and got my rice and next thing ya know there was a duck leg in my bowl. The WHOLE STINKIN LEG! Leg, bones, webbed feet, and skin. Oooohhhh goodness people let me tell you, I tried it, and we will leave it at that. Never thought I would have eat things like that in England.

Wednesday was a pretty sweet we got to do a Zone Service project which is pictured below, but we all went to a park early in the morning and we cleaned it up, painted, planted bushes, and all sorts of things like that. Never in my life until now would I be grateful to my parents for teaching me how to weed, and sweep, and work hard the proper way, because it is just so much better the first time when you do it the right way. Some missionaries need to learn that, so thanks mom and dad! Then on Thursday we had our zone training on how to use members more after the inspiring general conference talks, we were trained on what we can do better to help them. Then on Thursday and Friday unfortunately we had to drop 2 of our investigators this week, because they weren't keeping their commitments which is always the saddest thing is when they are so close to receiving God's blessings but because of their own efforts they won't be able to receive them, just yet. So sad, but funny thing for ya. In England you tend to see some weird things. So me and elder Zheng got a good laugh when on Friday we saw a lady walking a cat, on a leash. Hahaha the weirdest thing ever, never in my life have I ever seen that! It even had a little sweater thing on, hahaha oooh English people. 

Saturday and Sunday were exciting day for us because we had a lot of good things happen. Our amazing friend C……M….. was interviewed for his baptism and he passed, and came to church so this Saturday we are going to be having a BAPTISM!!! But please pray that everything will work out smoothly. But I am so excited for him!!! Being able to teach C…..M…… has been one of the highlights of my mission. He is not even a member (yet) but you can see the light of Christ in him. I hope to be able to be like him more in my life. Then on Sunday we had a great surprise, our investigator S……… get up and bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and announced her baptism for the 21st of either this month or November, translation is a bit rough still, but she said that she is going to get baptized! ! So we hopefully will be having an interview with her this week, and get her dunked this month! Soooo amazing wow I just love this branch and love being a Chinese elder! Then Sunday ended very cool, because we found an orange Lamborghini in a car park so I went to go take a picture of it, and actually ran into the owner. And as a missionary I was naturally inclined to talk to him. So I asked him all sorts of questions about his car, and then I asked him how he at 31 years old owns 2 Lamborghini's and one Ferrari, and guess what he said, (dad your going to love this) he said, "its simple don't be dumb, save your money buy what you need and save the rest, invest a little and see what happens" pretty good advice I would say. So for all you people not out on missions, if you’re a college student, parent, working, whatever, save your money and you too could own a Lamborghini! Haha well that's all I got for ya this week, stay tuned next week to see how it goes with C…..M…… & S……..!

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Sent from my iPad 

Pictures

1.  Cool chapel in Newcastle.

2. My motto

3. District train ride

4. Zone Service