A boxing offer and our frozen freezer & That make so much sense!

July 18 2016

Alrighty everyone this week was an amazing week! right now its sooo hot that English people aren't wearing clothes Jk mom that was a joke it’s okay! And dad don't worry I am keeping elder Leavitt safe and away from the evils of the world! alright so let’s go into the week shall we, I hope you all had a great week like we did.

So first with J....., or Jehovah witness guy! So we went over to his house early on this week to see if he had made any progress with his reading of the book of Mormon because he had read some before for the first time and so we wanted to see how he is doing! So we go in have a lesson about faith using ether 12 to teach and read with him, when we are about to leave and then he says, "Wait you got to give me more to read, if I am going to be reading this book every night I am not going to read the same thing everyday!" You could say I almost started to dance right in his living room it was the best thing ever! now we got to work on his church attendance but we will get him don't worry! But yeah that was just the best thing to hear from an investigator for sure!

A cathedral for Pday

Interesting thing that happened this week. We had a lesson early on Monday this week with a less active named D....., who is now our missionary wingman! It’s awesome we just say wingman we need you for this and he comes! hahaha he has now been to church every week for the past month! Now he is working on some commandment issues but he is now an active member of the church again! Which is the best thing ever to see someone come back to church and receive the blessings or it! Anyways so we are up in this area, knock on this door and a guy opens up and says this, "I have been to your church before" not a usual response for sure but then he expounds. " It was your big white one in Preston and they wouldn't let me in, now what kind of church builds something like that and then doesn't allow people in?" so I quickly explain that it’s a temple of ours and the sacredness of it, and how we use the temple as one of the most sacred places to us. I thought I explained it in a good way, but obviously not when the guy responds with "that doesn't sound like a Christian church to me!" and then slams the door! Ouch! it hurt a little bit not going to lie!

A cathedral for Pday

Then another encounter however this one was a bit different. We were there knocking on some door when we got yelled at from behind and we looked back and there is this guy sitting in the nicest Porche ever!! He calls us over and tells us that he wants to give us some advice. by the look of his car I didn't object, but he continues to tell us that they only way we can ever really know who God is, is through prayer, and how we need to gain a relationship with our Father in Heaven. For a second there I thought he was teaching me the Restoration but he wasn't. And told us his whole life story about how he was born Muslim but came to England learned English and then became a Professional Boxer and now drives porches around for fun! But he started to ask us all sorts of questions until we stumped him when he asked, "how much do you get paid to do this, and why do you tell people they are wrong?" So I quickly responded with the fact that we contribute our own money, how none of us get paid and that we simply invite people to read and pray to find out who god really is. His jaw just dropped. After realizing what we were doing he offered us the craziest stuff ever. Free boxing classes everyday whenever we want, he wanted to take us out to eat at this crazy nice place in town and offered to give us a lift in his super nice porche! He just started to shake our hands and just gave us so much praise, (it felt uncomfortable really) but it was unique to have praise rather than the other harsh stuff! But that was awesome! so we are going back to see S......  K....., the Professional Boxer  once he gets back from America! hahaha ooh the people you will meet on your mission.

A cathedral for Pday

Then to end this email I should of taken a picture but I didn't! We had to do one of the hardest tasks ever!  It was lunch time and so we went down to grab some food! I was planning on having rice and chicken and veggies, cause got to be healthy right! well I go to open the freezer for my chicken and the drawer wouldn't open! it was frozen shut! I being the persistent kid that I am was determined to get my chicken out. So I finally got the drawer out and saw the excess amount of ice in the freezer and thought we need to defrost this thing quickly before we have to go. So we pulled all the food out, which wasn't much. Defrosted all the drawers with warm water and then we started to chip away at the ice inside to get rid of it all. After about 15 min of this I realize that we were running out of time and we needed to go faster so what did we do. we got creative! First came the bottle of hot water which slowly melting the ice away but not quick enough, so along with the bottle of water I had this amazing idea! You know how most irons have steam in them! hahah yes picture this in your heads! SO YES I got our iron and turned in on and loaded it up with some water! Stuck it in the freezer and closed the door as much as possible! And started to rapid spray the steam into the freezer, trying to make it like a sauna. Haha and it worked! We a solid 30 min we sat there filling up the iron and used the steam to melt it all away! it was awesome! Hahah I left the flat all wet from the water and the steam but it was a great time, definitely one to remember! Well that's all for me this week! hope you all have a great week!

 

love elder Hanks

 

July 11 2016

Hiya there everyone! hope that you all had a wonderful 4th of july last week. We had a successful BBQ with the missionaries in our zone and said goodbye to some of our missionaries who were going home from their missions as successful elders! So that was sad to say bye to them but overall the BBQ was a success all thanks to my wonderful mother! I love that lady she is the best!! But this week was an alright week for Elder Leavitt and I. We didn't find any new investigators this week but we are working hard to getting some more people to teach so don't you worry we will get them but I will share some experiences that happened this week.

4th of July BBQ

4th of July BBQ

First. J..... our investigator who is being taught by Jehovah witnesses. Once again agreed that our church "makes so much more success!" But this past week we went to see how his reading and if he had prayed about the book of Mormon, and he hadn't so me and elder Leavitt in our distraught! Were edified by the spirit and we both received and impression to share with Jed the first lesson again and at the end of it we shared a video called "testimony of the book of Mormon" by elder Holland and it was sooo awesome! The spirit was so strong that I almost started to ball in front of this former navy/army guy and elder Leavitt said that he had Goosebumps the whole time. Then we both bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and it was such an amazing lesson, the spirit was so strong there! AHHHH THE church is true and the BOOK of MORMON is amazing please read that book everyday it is the best thing ever!!!!!

Our Sheffield area board drawings...! 

this is what Sheffield looks like on a Sunny day! 

Then we had to say our goodbye's to elder Poho and Elder Bowen in our flat. It was a sad goodbye after living with them for almost half a year, its was a sad departure. But now the flat is really quiet and I am not sure that elder Leavitt is a fan of my singing but he has to deal with it for the next couple of weeks right! But its been alright its been nice to have a little bit of EXTRA space because the house is just way to big for us! but yeah sad day there!

Next up that happened was with this man named J.... Now J..... let us in with the kindness of his heart because it was raining and me and elder Leavitt forgot our coats as usual, and we were just drenched so he let us in. He started to ask us all sorts of questions which lead us to teach about the Plan of Salvation and at the end of us teaching him, normally we ask them questions to see how they understood but J...... recapped the whole thing like almost perfectly. It was awesome we were so excited to invite him to baptism and he even said, "Wow, this makes so much more sense!" I feel like that's going to happen a lot on my mission! But then all of a sudden he looked at his watch and said "oh no I need to go and kicked us out and then ran past us down the street before we could set up anything, like a return appointment or inviting him to baptism, but at least we committed him to read and to pray if our message is true! So that was really good.

Then I had an awesome experience just last night as we were walking back to the flat at night to go in for the night. We ran into this guy named P.....! now with P..... we met him about 4 months ago with elder Cottrell and he wasn't interested but we had a really great conversation with him and at the end of talking to him he gave me some of the best compliments an English person has ever given me, a man that I barely knew, but he told me some really great things, and one of the things he said, was a fulfillment of my Patriarchal blessing! It was awesome. God really gives us his promised blessings in his own time! I love this gospel and know that this is his church on the earth today!!

Please read your Book of Mormon it will change your life!!

love

 Elder Hanks

The 4th and lots of changes!

elder Poho my Czech friend!

HAPPY JULY 4th everyone hope you all have a wonderful day, I know that I will because I am hosting a bbq for all the missionaries in the zone so that will be fun right?!  Well lets hope I don't burn down the place shall we! But a lot of things have been happening over this past week it has been a really busy week so lets get into it shall we, because we got 4 new investigators which is sooooooooooo AWESOME! 

T.........

The very first door we knocked on Wednesday was quite the experience, it was on the great road of (REMIE)ngton road "coincidence I think not!"Anyways so we knock on this door and T......opens up the door barely wearing any clothes-  just wonderful!  It left a mark on elder Leavitt for sure!  But T...... is a young lad like 25ish and has lots of wonderful ideas! We talked for awhile and then it lead into the fact of who we were and what we were doing so it was really awesome! T........ explained to us his version of god, which is the earth, and the tree roots are the brains of the earth and the water is the body of god!? Then he said that all people who kill any animal or insects should go to prison, but then he went on to say that he thinks we should go back to the time when we hunted for food and all.  it was kind of confusing but he offered to listen to what we have to say and took a book or Mormon, so we will have to see what happens with this guy named T........!

We missionaries are thieves! This past week we have had 2 funny experiences with a certain religion. One who we get called all the time and who thinks they have found the name of God, (cough.... cough.... Jehovah) anyways - so normally we have no luck with people in regards to this religion because people are set on their ways. HOWEVER! Twice in one week it was changed and hopefully stealing an investigator away from them!  First with a man named B.......

B.......... is a 70 yr. old man who wants to follow God before he dies, I know kind of sad, but that's what he told us. Anyways we got in with B.......... and he told us that he used to be part of that particular religion but had a fall out with them and no longer was attending. But he still wanted to follow God, so he asked us how we differ from them and our view on what happens about after we die! So we taught this man about the wonderful Plan of Salvation and what happens and I quote from him, "wow, this makes so much more sense, and way better than what ......... believes in. Where is your church I would like to come!" BOOOOOOYYYAHHHHHHHHH! The Spirit testified and he is loving it! SOOOOOO AWESOME I cant wait to see what happens with Brian! So pray for him please!!

Then for J............! he is also a 70 yr old man who wants to find God before he dies! hahah I don't know why I keep finding these people. So this is very interesting with Jed, because he has been a former investigator and has already been taught by missionaries, but the A.P's said that if we used the area book and went by formers,  our teaching pools would increase and its true! it did! Anyways so J........ is currently being taught by the Jehovah witnesses as well, and he always compares us together and sometimes it gets really annoying. So this past lesson he didn't read his book of Mormon, so what did - we read it with him, and I had no idea what to read, I just opened up mine and said we will read this verse, then this and this  verse and sooo on....... And it turned out Amazing the holy ghost definitely guided us on what to say, and read in that lesson! So at the end of this lesson he told us this, "All I want is to find out the truth and get on with it, and it looks like I am leaning towards Mormons, and you are only kids!" Hahahaha yeah I am just a kid, but we have the truth! AHHHHH it was awesome!

last time as a foursome in our apartment....

Sorry this is going to be a really long email here. But then this week we got to meet our new mission President, President Turvey. He is soo awesome, we all got to meet with him for like 30 seconds alone and the only thing he mentioned was Chinese and how he plans on using it, so looks like I might need to pull out my Chinese books again! But he is awesome we had a great meeting with him, and he has a lot of similar views as president Pilkington and said that he probably wouldn't be changing much in the mission so that was nice to know up front, but I am really excited to see what happens over the next year! And then to add on top of that, our bishop got released as well, and so we got a new bishop too, which was crazy hence lots of changes! But the new bishop is a good guy, it just reminded me a lot when my dad was called to be a bishop and when he told all of us, and then I remember when he was released, all the memories came flooding back! So we got two new people to work with now!

Then this past week we also had transfers and well because I am training not much really happened. I am staying here in Sheffield to finish training elder Leavitt which I am super happy to do, because this kid is awesome I am so blessed to have him as my "son" however the sad news is the two elders in our flat who are Slovak speaking elders, both finish their missions and are going home on Tuesday and there are no more Slovak elders coming in so the house that we now live in is just me and elder Leavitt, so its going to be really quiet the next six weeks. But it has been really sad to see them pack and also really exciting to see them talk about how they are going to see their families, burn their sun-faded suits and they even ended strong with a baptism on Saturday! Endure to the end right! So that will be a big change for us this next few weeks, lots of room for just me and Elder Leavitt! But that's all for me! Happy fourth everyone!

The Elders going home - burning one of their suits...

love you all!

Elder Hanks

June 27 2016

Alrighty people so not too much happened this past week sadly but I will try and make this exciting for all of you guys to read here. So I guess the first thing is this week we get our new mission president, President Turvey sot hat will be really exciting but I will admit I am going to really miss president Pilkington he has taught me a lot in my life and I will always remember the impact that he had on my life! However I am looking forward to seeing how Pres. Turvey will instruct us and be able to learn more from him.

This week was great. We found 2 new investigators which was sooooo awesome!!!

First was R........,

So R....... is like a 70 yr old man who has always believed that there is a god, but has never known where to go, because too many churches and not enough energy to go around and ask. So right now its a battle between us and the Jehovah Witnesses, and well I am not worried because I have the truth and the holy ghost is on my side, so that is no real concern, but we are excited to see what will happen with him these next few weeks.

"Riskin' " our lives in the "hood" ! 

Second is W...........,

He is a 50 yr old man, who has 2 daughters and he is soo cool. He is a security guard, but like the higher up people, so he tells all the other guys what to do, and trains them and does all the really bit gigs, like concerts and stuff over here, even at 50 yrs old. So we met him knocking he was busy and didn't have much time, so we gave him a book of Mormon he said he would read it, he did, and so did his 15 yr old daughter (sooo Sweet!!!) And then we went back and taught him the restoration outside, on his door, in the rain while he sat there in his doorway, dry as can be. So I wish I could say the spirit was SUPER STRONG, but rather I was just trying to keep my mind in the right place, while teaching in the rain! But hey it was a great lesson and elder Leavitt taught most of it, so that was super good! I was so blessed to get elder Leavitt the lad Is just a boss!!! I love serving with him, I am going to miss working with this Cowboy when the time comes!!

But this is just a funny story and where the title comes into play. We were knocking on some doors and we weren't seeing much success. However we always keep going so we kept knocking and we knocked on this door and this massive guy, like picture a lad who is 6 '7 and like 340lbs. Alright huge guy! I ask him a funny question to simply get him to laugh, he responds with the English classic "not bothered" I then responded with "well that's alright could you at lea............" and then he yelled at the top of his lungs some choice words I simply cannot say, and then the greatest thing happened! He SLAMMED HIS DOOR SOOOOOO HARD!! That no joke it pushed me back and rattled his windows, and his neighbours windows and everyone came out to see what happened! It was awesome! hahaha elder Leavitt was laughing so hard at it, which I think was great to see him enjoying the rejection of the British!!

The park we walk through every day ! 

But I had a very interesting thought this past week that I thought might be worth sharing.

We have been working on teaching lesson 2 this week with elder Leavitt, and I was sitting there listening to him speak about the plan, and I thought of something. The plan is designed to allow us to become more like our father in heaven, and to live with him again. And I started to think about all the reasons why we were not like him now, and all these excuses came into my head, and then came the thought, "what would happen if our Father in Heaven used the same excuses we did?" Now imagine that!

"ooh sorry I couldn't help you today I was too tired!"

"That wasn't my job to do, it was Joseph's!"

"Sorry I couldn't spare your life, I fell asleep."

"Sorry I just have too much on my plate right now!" etc............

possibilities are endless with excuses

What would happen to us he if did that! Our lives would be messes, we would have nothing, or no one to rely on! That's it! If we truly want to become like him, we will get rid of our excuses and do something for someone else! Ask your father in heaven in your next prayer, "What can I do for you today!?" and see how he plans to work through you to bless the lives of others!

Stop the excuses and help out someone!

l love you all! hope you all have a wonderful week!

love

Elder hanks

Our lives on a daily basis... outside and inside homes...

A 3 week catch up! June 6th - 20th 2016

June 20 2016

Wow hello again everyone, can I just say that I think there must be something in the water they give us because the time is just going by way too fast, I feel like I just did this thing yesterday but I didn't, but hey ooh well, time flies when you’re having fun right! so let’s hear some fun things that happened this past week shall we.

This week we had our last and final thing with President Pilkington. He came to all of our district meetings and gave us an awesome little talk about missionary work and the love that he has grown for the gospel and it was just so powerful and I am really going to miss President,  that man is just the best. And he gets even better because he gave me 12 boxes of pancake mix and some syrup before he left. Heavenly Father must of told him that I was really craving some pancakes and well he delivered! SOOOOO GOOOD! PANCAKES FOR DAYS!

Last Monday we had to go exchange some money for Elder Leavitt because he had a lot of American cash so we exchanged it and as we were leaving the store a lady came up to us and asked us if we could give her the address to our church she wanted to come!???/ WHAT THAT NEVER HAPPENS! So of course gave her all the details for the church and now we are just waiting to see what happens with this lady, I hope she actually comes!:)

N……….! Wow this guy was soo sweet. So we went on a little blitz with the Zone Leaders because the sisters had to steal their car to go somewhere so they were stuck in our area without anywhere to go, so they came and worked with us for a little bit, it was awesome! We knocked on some doors and on the third door we knocked on, we looked back to the first door and this young lad was standing there waving us down! So we went over and he could speak very little English and he was from Greece. He asked if we were the ones who banged on his door (Elder Smith has a very energetic knock)! Well because of his lack of English he said that he was going to call his friend and have him translate for us. Terror went through my mind, because if we told his friend who we are we have no way of making sure that he doesn't say anything mean or false about us, so in a panic the Holy Ghost always comes in for the save! I remembered that there was a returned missionary in our ward who served in Greece. So I quickly pulled out my phone and asked him if he could talk to our friend instead! So I called this member up and explained what was happening and if he could talk to this guy at the door, and explain who we were-  luckily he was free so they talked for a while, then this guy N………. face lights up and says something in Greek, "oidosajfsdoifas aifjsdpfsdj" Right,  well it turns out that when I finally talked to the member later on he said that N……. loves to talk about Jesus and wants to chat! So now we have to coordinate a time with this member and N…… to have a lesson! Super Cool!!!!!!

Man the funniest excuses you get as being a missionary, sorry this is a long email but a lot of funny stuff happened. So this Elder Omondi and I were on exchange and we got the funniest excuse ever. We asked this lady about hikes- If there was anywhere to go to hike here and Sheffield and she responded and told us about some amazing places that we could go to, well we transitioned into the gospel and we mentioned how we talked about God! People no joke -the second we said God, The lady says and I quote, "sorry I am deaf I can’t hear you, sorry I must go!" After a nice conversation all of a sudden this lady becomes deaf, what a miracle! I didn't know we had the power to do that to people to cause people to become deaf as missionaries! Who would of thunk!?? ohhh English people you got to love them!

We always sit next to the weirdest people on the buses let me tell you! We got on this bus on Thursday to go to a tea appointment but there were so many people on the bus that we had to stand in the aisle. Well this 95 year old lady starts to yell "Jesus People, ooh boy!" Then she goes on to tell us this and hence the subject of the letter. She in the loudest voice possible the whole bus was staring right at us. She began to tell us that Jesus through her talks to people, that he controls her vocal chords and she begins to speak like a man! And she doesn't remember a word she says, but as a 95 yr old women, she goes into the middle of town center and Preaches to people in a man voice, and if that wasn't enough, she begins to ask people on the bus, if they have ever heard her preach. And sure enough people were saying yes and that it was something that she did! I didn't even know what to say when she asked me if Jesus Spoke through me too, because like yes we do speak for him, but not quite to the extent that she was meaning! Hahaha it was a great experience!! And quite frankly one of the longest bus rides i have ever had!

Well that does it for me folks. Ya'll have a great week! And also happy fathers day to all you dads! And of course to the best dad in the whole world! I love you dad, thanks for being the greatest example to me!

Love Elder Hanks!!

June13 2016

Well people lots of things were going on this past week and "So let’s get down to business"

Alrighty there well this week was great for several reasons the first one being Zone Conference!!

Zone Conference was awesome. It was our last meeting with President Pilkington as a mission and it was awesome because it was a last little hurrah for him. The whole time we talked about things that President has talked about for the past 3 years and it was really awesome I learned so much in this past Zone Conference and the spirit there was so strong I just love Zone Conferences, they are the best. And you get to see some old friends as well, I got to see Elder Von Cannon and Elder Cottrell again, along with the old flat mates over in York so that was awesome! So if any of you remember elder Von Cannon he is really shy kid, and doesn't liked to be touched, the only time he ever touched me was when we hugged when I got E.T. (emergency transferred)  to Sheffield. Well when we got off the bus at Zone Conference Elder Von Cannon came up to me and gave me a hug!! AHHH it was awesome I love that elder! However the best thing that happened at Zone Conference was when President and sister Pilkington both got up and bore their testimony on the Saviour together, with music and pictures and they went through his life and it was the most powerful/spiritual moment ever! I love being a part of the missionary work force! The saviour lives and he loves each and every single one of us!

Right after the Zone Conference we went on exchanges with our new district leader and his trainee. So I went with the trainee Elder Osborn and that Elder is such a character what a lad! Hahaha we had a lot of good laughs together and were able to see some fun people. We went to a members house in their ward to practice teach them a lesson and the members acted like they were totally atheist and hated us, needless to say that lesson didn't really happen because elder Osborn didn't know what to do, and I was just laughing because the members were being like the hardest investigator ever! But good experience got rained on a lot!!

We ended the exchange with a good laugh! This week I finally took my driving lessons over here and well let me tell you people! Driving in England is the scariest thing ever!!!!!! I thought that I was going to die, ok not really but its way different. it felt good to be driving again but being on the other side of the road was weird and the instructor was treating me like a 15 yr old learning how to drive, he made me do the whole 10 and 2 hand thing on the wheel, and made me go like 10 miles under the speed limit and ooh I was getting a bit frustrated with him, because "Well I have been driving sir for like the past 4 years now! I know how to drive!" but yeah elder Leavitt was having a good laugh at the guy just making me do all the little basic stuff that I really already know how to do. Nevertheless is was fun to drive again!

And then one little funny experience that we had the other day while finding. Let me tell you how funny English people are. They are SOOOOOOOOOOOO funny! They always say what’s on their mind no matter what, and sometimes they say it without thinking and it can bring out some really funny remarks! We asked one man, what would he do if God came down from the sky and asked him to go to church if he would? Alright got the question! Well this like 40 yr old man responds with, "well I think that I would first ask for his identification first, then if he was God I would go!" At that point I didn't know if he was joking or serious but when elder Leavitt started to laugh a little the guy pointed out that it’s very serious and that we should always ask for peoples identification to be safe!! hahaha ooh the things that you will hear here in England!

Well that's it for me here in England, looks like the hanks are all over the places, I am here, Family is in Singapore, Sister in New York! love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!

love

elder Hanks

June 6^th 2016

Hello everyone I hope that you all had a wonderful week this week because my week was amazing. It was sad to say goodbye to Elder Cottrell but then again because he lives like 10 min away from me back in Utah -  it wasn't too bad I know I will see that guy again, so that is alright. On Tuesday we made the long drive up to Leeds for a trainer meeting, where they were going to show us how to train new missionaries. To keep it short, pretty much they said this, "how you work with them, treat them, show them, expose them, will set the standard for work the rest of their mission, so don't mess this up!" No pressure at all right! So we had this meeting and then like 2 hours later we finally got to meet our trainee's!! drum roll....................................................................

Elder Leavitt come on down you’re the next contestant on the Elder Hanks training segment!!!

My new companion is soooo awesome! So yeah Elder Leavitt is fresh from the Provo MTC (not Chinese speaking) but we’ll manage! But he is from a small town near Las Vegas and let me tell you something that is just the greatest thing a trainer wants to hear.  HE'S A RANCHER!! He comes from an 1100 acre ranch and does cattle, horses the whole nine yards!!! And his accent whoa!!! All he has to do is say, howdy and people stop its amazing!!!! Because of his background waking up at 6:30 no problem at all, in fact sleeping in! He is huge, so tiredness is not a problem, he is social (except for public speaking) we'll work on that! And when we were going back to the flat I asked him to use 3 words to describe him and he says, "I love Work!!!" COME ON PEOPLE WHAT CAN BE BETTER THAN THAT, I WILL TELL YOU NOTHING!!!

This has been such a fun week with him, and the English people love him, and his accent, they love meeting a real cowboy!! I absolutely love training, I think it’s the best thing ever!!! So we got a lot of fun things this week during our work!

1st Service

We started off the week for an investigator named G……… an older gentleman who dropped us the second we showed up at his door again after the first lesson! But that didn't stop us from doing his garden so we had a fun little service project with him, and then I asked him to take a picture for us, and he held the camera backwards and I got a nice little selfie of him instead so I will add that in later!! But we did some service and then left the man for the last time!!

2nd  Church

So everyone has this idea, that missionaries know everything about the gospel and that we can answer every question, which is almost true! But this past Sunday I was talking to elder Leavitt about speaking in church, because he asked how often we speak in church, and I told him that we only do it if someone doesn't show up, and then ask us like last second. Well like 10 min later the bishop comes up to me and says hey we have no teacher for the youth Sunday school class will you teach the lesson! So we had a sweet lesson with the youth, wish I got a picture but it was church, and that wouldn't of been reverent.

3rd Phone

This is mainly for all the missionaries out there serving now, but a lesson that we can all learn from. We were coming back from service with graham and we were on the bus and there was only a couple of people on the bus, besides us. I was tired and I wasn't in the mood of talking to people, but with a new trainee and a desire to be obedient I decided I needed to talk to the man in the back, so I got up and went and talked to him. Had a lovely conversation with him, wasn't interested in us, but nice guy. Then we got off the bus, and I checked my pockets and yes the phone was gone! It was on the bus and that was the last bus of the day! Ahhhhh!   So there was no getting it back! I sat there at the bus stop not knowing what to do, watching the bus drive away, when in the distance I saw the bus stop, a man got off the bus, couldn't tell who it was because he was too far away. But I felt like I should walk towards the guy and as we got to him, I realized it was S…….., the guy that I had talked to on the bus. He had our phone and we were able to have another good chat with him! I know without a shadow of a doubt, that because I was obedient, and talked to that man, he got off his bus 30 min early to give us our phone and then walk home! Such a strong testimony builder for me, and hope that all my friends and family out in the world will not be afraid to open our mouths and talk to everyone! One day that man will receive the gospel!

4th 

Alrighty everyone buckle down for this one because this is going to be a fun story! So this last week I wanted elder Leavitt to experience what it’s like to have a door slammed in your face, as soon as possible so he knows how to deal with it. Well amongst knocking we meet a lady named L……..! We had a nice chat with L….., and then she invited us to come in. We came in sat down and then it goes all crazy. She starts to tell us that she is very similar to us in beliefs, because she is a spiritualist! (people, not similar!) She goes on to tell us that she has these 3 spirits who follow her wherever she goes and helps her. One of them is a lizard man, one is a Native American who guides her, and the last one is Al Capone's right hand man, who is her protector. Sounds lovely doesn't it, having a gangster as a protector. Anyways so we start to teach her the lesson which was horrible because she always interrupted us, but we kept going, and then she says to Elder Leavitt, "do you like walking?" with the response "no not really" haha "weird" she says " I am sensing a nomad spirit around you, who likes to walk and that's why you are able to walk around so much!" Then she turns to me and says, "your badge is in Chinese, can you speak it?" "yeah" "that's why I feel a Chinese presence here, you have a Chinese guide spirit and that's why you are so short!" (not funny people) No joke it was the weirdest thing ever, and then to end the lesson when we got to the restoration and pulled out the book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray about it, she responds with this statement at which point I just had it! But she says this, "you know as I have sat here listening to you, I have had a series of revelations, first is my spirits are saying that you guys are just scratching the surface or what’s really there, you almost got it. Second is my spirits are telling me that I should not read that book for some reason. third is, I think that your main goal in being here should be teaching people what the difference is between you and Jehovah Witnesses."

Needless to say at that point I said thank you for her time and left! That was an experience that I hope I won’t forget!

Well that was this week for us here in Sheffield England! I hope you all had a wonderful memorial day, and know that we didn't do anything, because well no one celebrates it!

Anyways love you all, and always remember that our Heavenly Father Loves you,

love

Elder Hanks

One more picture with E. Cottrell

My new trainee!    Elder Leavitt ! 

A guy named G......unkowingly taking a selfie instead of taking a picture of us! 

E. Von Cannon at Zone Conference

Flat mates from York! 

My new district here in Sheffield ! 

This is how your protect your missionary stuff in the rain !
                                                                                             

When your bored at a door step.......