Do I stay or do I go....?

Jan 18 2015

Well this past week as we all know well, maybe some of you know is transfer week, and this is a very strange time as a missionary. So lets get into the week and see how it went shall we. 

This week was a pretty good week for us finding people to talk to. In England most of the work that you do on your mission is finding people to teach, we never get referrals or anything like that, so we have to go find our own investigators which is really good I love that we have to work for our people because they make them so much more meaningful to us missionaries. So me and Elder Von Cannon we were finally able to head back to the University this week. And it was the greatest thing ever!!!! I love talking to the University students they are all so nice, and because they are at the university they are way more open to learning new things so its super awesome to talk to them, and they always have interesting comments about what missionaries do and the fact that we are from America. We had a lot of conversations is seems like that had to deal with Donald Trump, we don’t watch the news, but it sounds like some pretty crazy things are happening over there! So i hope that all of you are doing alright and that the country is still stable!! But it feels good to finally start being able to use my Chinese again to talk to people, it has been a while since i have had to use it and so i am excited to start using it again. I love talking to the Chinese people they are so polite and just the nicest people ever! So hopefully we can start teaching some more Chinese people. 

So I guess I should mention what’s happening with the transfers in all. Everyone in my district and all the members of the ward said that I would probably be leaving the area of York and go somewhere else, the only person who thought that I would stay was my Companion Elder Von Cannon. So I was in a toss up because I didn’t know how often president Pilkington moved people around so it was exciting to see what would happen. Well it turns out they were all wrong! I AM STAYING IN YORK!!!! I love York it’s the greatest place ever and I couldn't be happier to be here! So that was super exciting to hear! 6 more weeks in this beautiful city!

So my flat the place where I live, has four elders living in it. And we have all become very close and they are all by best buds. We'll we were talking about our families and all and things we did back at home, and it came to the point where we were talking about things we did on Sundays with our families and such, and it got on the topic of food and how the best food was always on Sundays, you had big Sunday dinners!! So I decided to implement that into our flat. Now as missionaries we don’t get big fancy dinners on Sundays, normally its cereal or some sort of pasta thingy, or whatever it is we can make like a sandwich or something, however I decided to change that around. So these past two weeks I have become the cook of the flat! My mom had sent me some stuff from home to cook with and so I thought I would share with everyone. So during the week I bought a little bit more stuff than usual for this Sunday night dinner! And now it’s a tradition. This last week I made Taco's and it was awesome, we don’t have Mexican food over here, so it made it even better!! But now we have this tradition of having Sunday night dinner all four of us together making something big and its awesome!! I love it and so we will see what happens next week and all! But one good thing that comes out of this, is now I really have to learn how to cook things and take care of myself, so don’t worry mom I can make some stuff now!! 

Now I want to share with you guys an experience that I had two weeks ago, and it really had an impact on me and my mission. We had just gone through a really rough day this past Saturday, all of our appointments fell through and the finding that we did was terrible, no one was interested in our message and I was having one of the hardest times ever on my mission. It came to Sunday and the bishop got up to speak and as he was talking I was somewhat paying attention, trying to get over the fact that we had a terrible week and I was trying to get myself to be motivated. I finally decided to listen to the bishop and something amazing happened. Right when I looked up at him he quoted the song how firm a foundation, 

"Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed. 

 For I am they God and will still give thee aid.

 I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

 Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

 Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

 When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

 the rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow,

 For I will be with thee, they troubles to bless,

 And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee,

 And Sanctify to thee the deepest distress."

At that point I couldn't stop myself from being overwhelmed with the spirit, and the tears just started to flow and I knew that He was there watching over me! I know for a surety that God is there and that he loves us. That he knows our concerns and our need and wants to help us with everything. I know that he hears our prayers and that he really does care for us. He has a plan for each and every single one of us. I have no doubt about that. I know this church is be true, and I know that God is at the Helm of this Church. That Joseph Smith did in fact see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ that he did restore this gospel to the earth today. That Jesus Christ did in fact die for each of us, and through that Atonement, all things are possible. I love this Church and love being a missionary, I love you all and I know that This Church is True! 

Love Elder Hanks

     

 statue of Emperor Constantine

My awesome District !

Whats really important .....!

another great English sign!  

Thanksgiving & Decemberrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So as most of you know, England can get fairly cold during the winter months, and let me first tell you why. There is no snow here like none at all, its so cold here because all it does is rain and the wind blows constantly so you are always cold no matter where it is you go, so its getting cold here, but don't worry I am still surviving, thanks to my Utah weather adaptation skills. 

So this week I had an amazing experience for the first time while being on my mission. We were out knocking on some doors, in a little neighborhood area, me and Elder Liss. And Elder Chen was on the phone with someone when we knocked so he wasn't there. But while we were knocking we were having very little success. Some people weren't home, others just didnt bother to answer the door, as they stare at you through the window. Some people open the door and say "nope absolutely not" then close the door. But hey we are missionaries and its going to take a lot more that that to stop us. So I have never really been a fan of knocking on doors, mainly because it seemed like it didn't work that well. Well that soon changed..... because as we knocked on this door and a young dad opened the door holding his little 2 year old son, and said "come on in". Me and elder Liss looked at each other not knowing what to do for several reasons. 1st-  Elder Liss is a new missionary and didn't know what to do. 2- Elder Chen was on the phone. 3- We didn't even tell the guy who we were or what we were doing. 4 -We thought "is this guy a member?" 5-  I have never ever had someone actually let me into their house before, but he did. 

So we called over to Chen and Chen realized what was happening and quickly ended the phone call and came over. So we taught this guy the first two lessons in one sitting! It was so awesome he had a lot of questions and it was fun to answer them and to help him have an understanding of the gospel. Anyways we gave him a book of mormon and challenged him to read it and he agreed, and then said we could come back this week. So it was an amazing experience. We also taught him how to pray our way, the proper way, and he said the prayer at the end and it was sooooo awesome!!!!!!

Alrightly well as most of you know this week was transfer week for the mission. So whenever there is transfer night we do something special and just have a good time because we have to be home earlier than normal so that's always good. So this week there will be a ton of pictures just to warn all of you. But it turns out that I am staying in York!!!   So yeah!!!!!

But Elder Chen and Elder Liss on on their way up to New Castle, to start a chinese district up there, and elder Chen is the new district leader for that!! So my days with my trainer are over, even though I am still in training, I'm in week 9 of twelve. But oooh well, my trainer is gone and he is taking my (brother) with him. So my new companion Elder Voncannon will be coming on wednesday. He is also a chinese speaker, so that's good, But I will miss elder Chen dearly and he has been such a blessing to my life, and my missionary experience. So next week you can expect to hear some things about my new companion!!!! 

Love You all and the church is true!!! 

ps. I cooked the food so yeah I'm not starving!! 

 

Strange book titles at the Library ....

Quidditch anyone...?  

Gotta love some English Christmas  decorating!  The only house we have seen with Christmas lights! 

Nov 30th 2015 

So this week was thanksgiving as you all know and well,  it was a different than what one experiences in America. Mainly because well,  England doesn't celebrate thanksgiving!  The only way you get thanksgiving is if you are an american missionary or your companion is american! That's how you get thanksgiving because they must feel bad for us!  But its actually surprising, some British people make fun of thanksgiving. 

Anywho!!!!!! So this week has been really good. We got to meet a lot of new people and got a lot of return appointments which are always the best because then you know you actually get to meet with someone, unless they flog you! Which means they tell you to come by at this time and you go and their not there! It happens quite a lot but its okay because then we come back and get them when they are not expecting you so ha!! Us missionaries are very persistent in our ways of meeting people that's for sure. But anyways this was a good week for us as a companionship as well, because we found out with 3 people you can do a whole lot of finding because there are more of you out there. So hopefully we will be able to find some people to teach this next week. Also while I remember next week is transfers, I don't know whats going to happen with me being in a trio but know that I will be emailing next week on Tuesday not on Monday. 

But anyways kinda a weird story that turns out fine - So this member came up to us at church and asked us if we would help them clean their house because they are moving so we said yes, because we never get to do service over here, so any opportunity you get you take it, so even cleaning houses is good! 

So we get their address and we go there and our ipad leads us to this tiny alley and it was sooo dark. We were nervous to go in their because you couldn't see anything, but the members said they lived here so we had a little faith and went in and we walked down this alley way for a bit, until we came to this door finally!!! And they answered it ! which was good-  but it was really scary for sure!!!

  Here is a sign that our church is true. When you establish another church, heavenly father will find little ways of telling you that its not quite true!

So as you all know this past week was thanksgiving, hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. With lots of food and pie, and deserts and such. Mine was..... well it was good too! I had almost gone the entire day without even realizing that it was thanksgiving until I came to a members house who was feeding us because I was american- my companions lucky I'm american this week!! So we go into their house and they are super nice members, so great, but they are remodeling their house so we ate on the couch, with our plates on our laps! haha - so fun!  I had canned corn, cheesy potatoes and chicken nuggets!   You got your poultry, potatoes & a side ! hey its so much better than what I could of done for myself so I was really grateful. But then came a really good classic English apple pie, and well they definitely know how to make some pies!! So that was really good. But it really made me grateful for living in America and having my friends and family around me. But hey this is the life of a missionary and its awesome. I'm just grateful to be able to celebrate our holidays over here too! 

Last thing is-  Well,  there are only certain things that you can do as a missionary to have fun, especially as young men you can't do much,  so we take any advantages we can to have fun. So this includes a lot of nerf wars and well a lot of strange purchases!! So this past week I bought myself an amazing blanket!!! And yes I didn't have a mom to tell me that it was too childish or that I couldn't buy it!! But hey this is how we have fun right!!! 

Anyways love you all and i am so grateful for all of your support and love. The church is true and god loves you!

Love Elder Hanks