I'm still singing!

June 12 2017

Another week has gone by, and I still feel like I just got here to Leeds. But there has been a lot of fun things that have happened over the past few days. So first off I don't know if I told you guys this or not? But guess who got to drive President Turvey's car?? That's right me I did! Haha that was so fun, how many missionaries can say that their mission President gave them the keys to his car so they could go somewhere! Haha that was sooo good! So that was fun but I was super safe! 

MC Noodle King - enjoying best noodles ever! 

This week we continued teaching the Romanian family, which was really good but we are trying to find out how to get them to come to stuff without any mode of transit. So we are looking for ways there,  but also we are going to get in contact with Romanian missionaries so they can teach them in their native language! So that should be really cool. 

Also had Zone Conference this week that was way good. I love hearing president Turvey talk to us! It was all about going through our own Gesthemane. So powerful! 

K......., is a cool English investigator we have. He has a strong faith in god, and likes to read the Book of Mormon but seems to have an issue with praying so that is something that we are trying to work on, but we took him to the mission home fireside on Sunday which was really good. Elder Iakopo asked me to sing there so, I sang with 4 elders an a Capella I need thee every hour it was really awesome and K......... seemed to enjoy it as well. 

We also found a Chinese girl named Y....... We taught her the restoration but like all the other students she is going to travel around Europe for a while so we will see what happened with her. 

Leeds University

But funny experience for ya- 

 So we were out one one street contacting and we stopped this uni student from Germany named Z......... We were having a nice chat about our beliefs when this guy who obviously loved to break the word of wisdom, approached us, and said "do you believe that what you do is morally correct in the sight of god?" Ummm yes clearly. Then he goes, "well, I deal with possessions and I'm always warned when evil is around me, and here I am with you now." With giving me the creepiest glare ever. Then he walked away! Hahaha only in Leeds right! But that was fun! Poor elder Tsai didn't understand a word of what he was saying because of the lack of teeth and his alcoholic slurred wording. 

But good week for us, still finding a lot trying to get some people to baptism! 

cool shopping center

Love you all! 

Elder Hanks韓長老

                                                 we are obediently excelling at language study!

faith singing throw back to Billingham

fastest month of May in my life!

May 8 2017

Elder Iakopo and I decided that this was the fastest week of our missions. It just went by just so fast. But that's because we were so busy doing the lords work which is a good thing to be busy with. This week was full of meetings, exchanges, and meeting people so that was really awesome

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was the greatest thing ever. President talked about the spirit and it was so amazing one thing that I really enjoyed that he said was "a disobedient missionary cannot claim that he has faith because he does not act upon it" so powerful so that gives you a slight glimpse of what Zone Conference was about and the spirit was so strong there.

On Wednesday we were on exchanges with some lads in Middlesbrough and it was great, we even saw some Chinese people in their area and that was fun to speak to them for a bit.

Our investigator T.... is doing really well. She will be getting baptised on Friday which should be really awesome, we taught her the law of chastity, word of wisdom, tithing, and sabbath day holy all in one lesson and she had no issues with any of it, sooo prepared.

M.L.C. On Friday was very exciting. As a council we decided that as a mission we would no longer watch movies. Haha it's going to be a huge shock to lots of missionaries but we discussed about being more consecrated missionaries and felt that was a major stumbling block for the mission.

Then on Sunday we had a cool thing happen. We had tea with the Turvey's on Sunday and that was so good, sister Turvey knows how to cook that's for sure. But after tea with them we helped set up the mission home fireside and then I conducted the fireside and it was such a powerful meeting. It was on the priesthood and the spirit was so strong. How blessed we are in the church to have the authority of god, to perform miracles and ordinances in the gospel. We are so blessed!

I'm just loving this mission life! I can't believe how fast the time is going here!
Love you all so much! Have a great week and I will speak to you fam on Sunday! Happy Mother's Day to all y'all out there!:)
We went to the beach!

         

#AOB - Army of Billingham

May 1 2017

Why hello there fam and others. This week was a pretty good week for the AoB! (Army of Billingham)

We got hailed on a couple of times which was nice - especially when your coats are back at the flat but that's that's all good, lessons learned.

But anyway -  fun stuff that still happened this week.

E. Iakopo

I don't know if I told you his last week but if I did,  I'm not sorry - because it needs to be mentioned again. We play football here every Wednesday and it's the first time ever on my mission I could pull out my cleats and play with English people! It's amazing!

Okay so on Friday we had the baptism of C..... which was so awesome. He investigated for 2 weeks and we taught him 3 times and came to church twice and then got baptized. Quickest baptism ever on my mission! But he is such a cool kid he wants to serve a mission someday!

T...... who is C...... sister,  is sweet! She will be getting baptized on the 12th instead because of some issues and what not! But we are excited for her as well it's going to to be well good. So we are seeing her tonight and teach her as much as we can because we can!  and she is going to be baptized in like 3 weeks so that is awesome!

During the week we decided to take some missionaries out to lunch and we went to this carvery place. Where you get 2 massive plates of a roast dinner and it's amazing! I'll be showing my family that place when we come back, it's called Toby Carvery!

But Billingham is awesome, we have some great members, the missionaries are awesome. This next week is going to be great, we have Zone Conference on Tuesday and MLC on Friday so it's going to be really fun! But in Zone Conference we are putting a focus on Alma 58. Really random chapter but it applies so much to missionary work and I would highly suggest reading it!

Anyways that's it from me y'all!
Love you guys,

Elder Hanks

E Hanks- top row right in the center

Awesome month of April and a little embarrassment to start the month off...!

April 3 2017

Well I thought we could start this week out with a fun story. But before that I hope you all enjoyed the amazing General a Conference we had this weekend and that none of you fell asleep while watching, because that is just so unfortunate to miss out on the words of our prophets and apostles! 

exploring Scarborough

So this week we had MLC and let's just say I left my mark. I just know that explaining this won't do it justice but it makes for a good memory.

all the witnesses to my "embarrassing" MLC stretching exercises ! 

So there we were in MLC doing what we do. And the Assistants to the President were doing an instruction on Baptismal interviews. And they stopped and said "everyone is looking a bit sleepy, let's get up and stretch a bit." So I went to do just that. I went to slide back my chair on the carpeted floor and the chair decides to get stuck on the carpet and begins to fold itself in. Only to add to the problem, I went to push off of the chair to stand up, only to to speed up its folding process. With all the leaders in the mission standing in a circle, I soon realized I was going down. As I went tumbling down it was as if the whole world went in slow motion, as I thought to myself what on earth am I going to do when I fall down. So there I went down to the floor and as I hit the floor and pulled a backwards somersault. Everyone now staring at me, I rolled my self back up into a squatting position and started to stretch. Trying to lessen the embarrassment of falling over I said, "oh you know me I take stretching very seriously." Haha then everyone started to bust up laughing. Haha it was so awkward, but hey not everyday you get to make your mission President and wife laugh! Haha wow so awkward. 

Then of course Conference you just can't beat that, and then to finish it all off for us, we have Zone training this week so we are planning that. Ummm A........ is getting baptised on Wednesday so we are really excited for that! And Y....... is getting dunked on the 15th so that is also awesome! 2 baptisms here we go! 

But this week we did, 2 exchanges one with elder saylin from woods cross and he has been here for 2 weeks. We had a great time and then also with the assistants elder Mikkola we talked to one English person the whole day!

And to finish off the week with a miracle we had an old dude named A........ walk up to us and asked to meet with us. So we did and taught him, he is a new investigator! Haha we are so blessed right now! But here's a good quote I liked from Conference. 

• We love him, because he first loved us. We can overcome the world, because he Overcame the world first. 

• A true disciple of Christ does not care about the social connections but more of our heavenly connection.  

Well that's it for me folks! Hope you all have a great spring break! It should be a good one for us! 

March 27 2017

This week was so great! I always think that there is no way for me to grow my love for my mission but then it happens. So we have lots to cover so let's get right down to the nit n' greedy

So this week started out awesome. We had a Zone Conference this week and it was absolutely amazing. President Turvey talked all about the Atonement and it was such an uplifting meeting like ooh my goodness!
My love for the Saviour grew so much during that meeting it was absolutely amazing. And not only that but I got to see old friends and people from back home!  (Autumn Jenkins)  It was like the best day ever!

my wardie - Autumn Jenkins arrived! 

Updates on people! To start off this past week we had our investigator named A...... pass her interview for baptism so she should be getting baptized in the upcoming weeks. So we are really looking forward to that. So pray that everything works out for her. We are praying so hard that she can be baptized on the fifth of April.

Y.......! Yes she is Chinese;) she is awesome!  We meet with her twice a week and she came to church for the second time on Sunday and loved it. And we have taught her most of the lessons and she is scheduled for the 15^th of April so pray that it works out for her as well. But she is gone for 5 days so we are praying that she will be ok! So we are very excited!

On Saturday our Stake did a western night. Haha they had a mechanical bull and people came in cowboy stuff and haha well it was so fun to see English people trying to be American! Haha the best part though was afterwards they gave us the left over peach cobbler.

For our Zone p-day we all went to the Minster as a Zone and it was so funny to see all the church people see so many Mormons in their church. Probably the only time it will ever happen!;)



We have done loads of finding this week and we are finding a few Chinese people so let's see if we can get some more Chinese people into the water.

Well love you all! I hope you all know how much I love this gospel! This is his church and I am so grateful that we can celebrate Easter this coming Sunday to remember Him and his resurrection. I love my Saviour and I owe him everything. What an amazing opportunity we have to hear our prophets and apostles speak of Him. I'm so excited. I hope you are as well, and really pay attention to their words!

Have a great week!

Amazing ZC and Always knock on the last door

Feb 22 2016

Hello everybody how are you all doing this fine week? This week was quite a hectic week for me and elder Von Cannon but you will come to know why later on in this email. 

This P-day me and Elder Von Cannon went to the top of the minster and were able to see the whole city of York and that was really awesome, I will show you guys some pictures later, but that was crazy fun, and the stairs up to them are so small that my shoulders were touching wall to wall, it soo crammed in there!! But so worth it, massive leg work out too, because it’s like 300 some odd stairs but it’s the best!! 

The week started off with an exchanged on Monday and Tuesday. I went with Elder Manu'a who is still Training and he is from Australia. He is so awesome I love that guy, we had a blast together and was great fun. The church came up with this new thing that when you go on exchange, both sets of missionaries go to the leaders area, so there were 4 of us working in these other guys area. So that was great fun we went by some of their investigators and one of them was very interesting. Their name was S..... and S.... is an older lady, but she has some medical issues. She has this really rare blood infection, that causes her legs to swell up and she can hardly walk on them. It’s pretty bad, so bad that you can’t even touch them or you can get infected. So we kept our distance, but it also has this really bad smell to it, because it causes the skin to die, so that wasn’t very fun, but on the brighter side we had a good lesson with her, and eventually invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Now there will be some hurdles to overcome with her legs, but hopefully everything will work out for her. 

Then on Wednesday we had a great Zone Conference. The mission is doing a major push for Obedience, so that was the focus of the Conference.  It was all of the northern Zones of the mission, which has 3 zones. And I was asked to give our purpose in front of everyone. It was alright, all I had to do was state the purpose and then add a little thought to it at the end, but that was good. But Zone Conference was amazing!! We learned so much and there are just some few things that I want to share with you guys. Most of these are quotes but are awesome. 

Chinese speaking missionaries from the northern 3 Zones... York, Hull & ? 

"If you think that you are doing the lord a favor by being on a mission you need to think again, the Lord is doing YOU a favor for allowing you to be here, it is his mission." 

That was a really powerful statement to me. Next we did something kinda unusual we studied about Moses all together. And president brought up some really great points with us. He talked about how the people when they finally were able to leave Egypt -how happy they all were, until they actually started to journey in the wilderness and how they then wanted to go back to Egypt (bondage). And they even saw so many miracles like the dust storm, and the parting of the sea, and even after all of that, some people still talked about going back to Egypt because the trip was hard. It just didn't make sense to us, that they actually wanted to go back to Egypt back to bondage after all that they had seen and experienced. That's when president related it to us and obedience. Often times we see the blessings that come from being obedient and we are happy and joyous, and then something goes wrong we lose sight of it, and we begin to be disobedient again (going back to Egypt).  It was an amazing analogy and it really had an impact on me. I know that obedience is so crucial in missionary work. 

As for the missionary work this week, well that was really difficult. We had very little success this week and it was quite the challenge for us. But we did have some and we are praying and hoping for a better week this week. One good thing that happened this week, was we were knocking on some doors, and this seems to happen a lot to me on my mission, so I will keep doing it. But anyways we were knocking on some doors and we were having little success, a bunch of people were being mean so we left the area, after a couple hours of knocking, and we were walking past this house, and it was soooooooo super decorated like a ton. So I decided, "What’s the worst that could happen, we already have been rejected a ton today, what’s one more door?" So we knocked it and this older lady answered the door, and guess what she was a Christian open to learning more!!!! A MIRACLE!!!! It was awesome so we have a return appointment for this week, and we will see how that goes. But lesson learned is always knock on the last door, because it’s probably going to be something good. 

Then later on in the week we had the old people area. Every door that we knocked on seem to be an elder lad, or lass, who had zero interest in us. But then came 2 doors in a row. The first guys name was P...... and P..... saw us and said "You American?" "yes"  "Well I drove across America in a 1940 Rolls Royce, and saw america and even saw your Salt Lake Area!"  We started talking and he said to come back anytime and we can have a chat about religion, so we will have to see how that goes. Then after P...... we met M......! Now M..... was not very keen on letting us into his home, but luckily he was having some computer problems so Elder Von Cannon being the genius that he is, offered to help and so he let us in. We couldn't fix his computer, but we started to talk about religion, and he told us that he used to go to the Church of England, but thought that they were modernizing everything, and it wasn't for him. He even uses the King James version of the Bible so that was great to know. Well he also invited us back for a chat about our church! So who knows I hope that I can have some 80 yr old conversion stories to tell, that would be really sweet!! But that was for us this week!! 

I love this mission, its soo tough and has a lot of struggles but I am learning so much and know that this is where I am supposed to be!! The church is true and I love you all, and hope that you all have a good week!! 

Love Elder Hanks

I found some Chinese Bamboo!