A sunny and great week!

April 10 2017

Hey there friends family and neighbors! I hope you all had a good week and are looking forward to Easter this weekend. I am looking forward to it. This week was so good, and had some bad as well. So we shall get stuck in shall we. 

Easter Treats we got from an awesome family here in York

This week we were able to see some amazing miracles. One thing I love about being a Zone leader is we get to go to the baptisms in the Zone and this past week we went to one of a lady named V.......... And she was so nervous to get baptized but she finally got into the water and the spirit was so strong. Wow it was just awesome! 

                  

Speaking of baptisms. A........ our investigator who was supposed to be baptized, something happened and we had to delay it, which is the saddest thing ever but then we were able to reschedule her for this week. It has been a real challenge but we are trying to hard to help this girl. So pray that it happens this week. 

For Y...... our other investigator she is golden. She is getting baptized on the 19th and she is sooo good for it. We are not worried in the slightest. We took her to a mission home fireside on Sunday night and she loved it. Not only that but members were so great to her! Wow it was awesome. But Y........ is on date for after the transfer, so if you pray for anything pray hat me and elder Ferrell will stay together here in York and so we can see Y...... get baptized.

               the beautiful city walls of York- the longest medieval town walls in all of England

But one thing I have thought about was something our Beloved prophet said about the Book of Mormon. I read some of the Book this morning and found this, 

1 Nephi 6:4-6 

4 For the fullness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

5 Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.

6 Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.

Look at this. Everything IN THE BOOK OF MORMON has something for us to learn. All of it, every single scripture verse in the Book of Mormon has worth. I have absolutely learned that truth here on my mission. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it truly can as Nephi said, persuade and strengthen us all in our faith in Christ. Please read it, study it, and pray about it and you will see wonders in your life! 

Love you all! Hope you all have a great Easter applying principles of peace from the Prince of Peace! 

Elder Hanks 韓長老

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!

Miracles and transfers!

March 20 2017

Well hello there everyone. Hope you all had as good of a week as I did. This week was just awesome trying to get elder Ferrell all sorted and seeing investigators and all the stuff that we missionaries do,  so let's start shall we! 

So first miracle! We met with our investigator A........ who we haven't seen for a month. So we saw her for a bit and just talked to see how she was doing,  we really felt that we should teach her the atonement. So on Saturday night we took A.......... to a members house and had THEE MOST POWERFUL LESSON EVER! So as we taught about the atonement it was so powerful the spirit was so strong and A......... got teary eyed and it was great. So A......... will be baptised in April. April is looking like a great month. So that was awesome.

On Friday we had a cool experience. We have a recent Convert L........ who is a boss! She introduced us to her friend Y.........who came to church last week and so we met up. And we taught the whole lesson in Chinese!
I haven't done that in like 5 months! It was amazing. So Y....... is great we didn't get her on date for baptism but we will soon. It was awesome! She is going to come to church again next week so that's awesome!

And so that was the majority of our week a really short email but,  hey- it was great next week will be much more exciting because we have Zone Conference and it's going to be a great week.

Hope you guys have a wonderful week.

Love ya

one more of E. Norton......

Elder Hanks 韓長老
sent from my iPad.

March 13 2017
Well family this week was such a fun week with so many miracles. Wow this week was just amazing so let's get stuck right in shall we.

Monday was historical for the YSA here in York because we were in charge of the FHE activity and the standard is now set high for activities. See pic and video for more details about the activity.

YSA  FHE activity...it was hilarious!

Tuesday was amazing. We had a lesson with our Chinese friend L......! And we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she had loads of questions and she really likes it. But at the end of the lesson we asked her
about her thoughts and she says these words.... "Well I think I had a a funny experience, but I'm not sure. hmmmmmm... I'll tell you next time."  Hahahahaha what no....... you can't just say that to missionaries!!! Experiences are what we live for. So she talked about how she doesn't sleep well and one night she decided to
read her Book of Mormon, and she had the best night sleep she has ever had in England and said how peaceful she felt. SHE FELT THE SPIRIT!!!!! Sooo cool now the next thing is church.

On Thursday this week we were on exchanges, and I was with elder Price from Sunny Cali! (See pics for more details!)  

Taking the train with Elder Price

And we had a lesson with our investigator S........., and he brought his friend (S.......) and we taught them the first lesson and it was chaotic. For two reasons. 1. S........(the friend) asks loads of questions. 2. Because we teach at their house of NINE uni students so lots of noise. But when we got to the first Vision., as soon as elder Price started to talk about it, THE ENTIRE HOUSE went dead quiet. The whole time and when it finished, everything went right back to normal. NOT EVEN JOKING it was just the coolest thing ever! So yeah sweet, spirit filled lesson and they should be coming to church next week.

Also bonus, a recent Convert Chinese girl named L.........brought a friend to church out of nowhere named Y........ And so we talked to her after church and I asked her what she thought of it. And she says, "I felt
good. But can't describe it. It was very peaceful." WHHHHHAAAATAAATATATATATTTTTTTTT!???!???!?!?!??!???
Working through L........ to meet with her this week! Sooo crazy!

Alright so transfer info I know that's what all my friends care about. So here's what's happening. 1/2 the Zone changed and that means in our flat-  big changes. So elder Winegar and Sicardi are both leaving the York area and no one is coming in so we are picking up their area. Elder Norton is also leaving me! Only one transfer together. But he is going to be the Zone leader over in Huddersfield. So my new companion is Elder Ferrell. I'm soooooo pumped!!!! This is going to be he best transfer ever and also it's going to be a bit lonely in our house
because now it's just two of us!

So yes it was a great week for us and you could say I am really looking forward to next weeks! Love you all, enjoy the pictures. 

ummmmm......strange english sightings......

exchanges, Zone conference, hospital trips and evil spirits...!

March 5 2017

Well friends and family, what a week it has been. I know they aren't going to read this but Congratulations to my Sister Hailey on her wedding last week. Really Happy for you guys, make sure you give them a high five or something next time you see them. So happy for you guys.

Well for us, I think we spent the majority of our week in the car, haha wow we are so lame but hey, not much we can do. But some updates for you guys So S........ is doing good, we are working hard with her, she really wanted to strengthen her faith before she got baptized so we are focusing on that faith of hers. So please pray that she will have more spiritual experiences and have a stronger desire for baptism.

L...... is good. She is reading and praying a lot for a Chinese student so we are right happy with her. Our next goal is to get her to the chapel for a tour this week and then church! So pray for her as well.

Just in case you were wondering.... and you shouldn't be! 

Cool experience for y'all! Sorry I'm typing quick because we are doing a YSA activity tonight so I'll send some pics and videos for you All! But back to the cool experience. So me and elder Norton because we had to take 2 missionaries to the hospital like 4 times so that is what we did almost every morning this week between our meetings. So we didn't have much finding this week so what did we do, well we prayed and said show us where to go. Went to a street felt we should do left side! Knocked on some doors, and F..... opened up the door. A young uni girl from Leeds! Start talking and out of the blue says, "yeah I'm catholic but I'm looking for more positivity and optimism in life and know that a God can help me! Miracle! Heavenly Father really does direct this work! It's been such a blessing to be apart of it!






Okay weird thing! So we found this guy named N........! Now at first N.......... seemed like a normal older man. He loves the bible and was so down for us to come and teach him. So we show up and it's him and his son so we were like "double bonus!" So we start to teach the lesson using the bible to teach and relate to him and the spirit is strong going well, they are asking good questions and it was going so great! We got to the part of the restoration and Joseph Smith. No issues yet, when I start to recite the first vision and all of a sudden out of nowhere!! N........ sits right up and starts to yell, "BLASPHEME! I WILL NEVER WORSHIP YOUR SMITH................." we won't go into gruesome details and then sits back down. The spirit it totally now gone and bad feeling arose and After about  30 seconds of silence N........ says, "sorry I have to go somewhere, but I would love for you guys to come back, I love speaking with you." Almost as if nothing just happened, so we got up and left, with the feeling of I don't even know how to describe it but yeah it was a first on the mission.



At MLC (mission leadership council) this week, it was really cool. Because we had the sister in our group going home this transfer so it was her last time there so we took a group picture and it turns out that out of the 30ish people that were there, about 20 of them were from our group! So that was so cool to see. President asked if they sprayed our group with magical leadership dust or something! Hahaha it was great! I'll send some pics to show you all! But sorry this weeks email is quite lame but his next week is the last week of the transfer so we will work hard and get some miracle for you all so I can have some stories to tell.

But to just end, can I just say this gospel is so true! I noticed that we are so blessed to have the knowledge we do about our father in Heaven. We know that we will experience challenges in life right before our greatest miracles so rely on the Savior and his Gospel and you will never go wrong! This truly is His church. I'm so grateful to be able to share this wonderful gospel with the people that I come in contact with!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week of March! Can you believe it!!Love  Elder Hanks韓長老Sent from my iPad.

 

The elder I trained is now a District Leader ! 

Feb 27 2017

I think this was one of the fastest weeks of my entire life! Wow if every week keeps going like this I don't know what I am going to do. But this week was busy, we had lots to do. 

So this week we found a new Chinese girl named L…….. She is awesome, but the first thing that she said to us at the lesson was "don't push me, I don't like being pushed" haha so obviously we are taking it slow with her but she is awesome, she cancelled on us this Saturday and wrote us this massive apology text afterwards so I hope it all works out. Pray for her, and for S……. as well, our two Chinese investigators. S……. won't get baptized this week, we have some new concerns to deal with, but hey we are optimistic!

This Thursday we had an amazing Zone Conference with York and Leeds zones. It was so good we focused on working with members and hope to get members to do more missionary work. So you all better be giving the missionaries some referrals! It was great and my favorite part was we had a testimony meeting with all the missionaries and it was such a powerful experience to see missionaries from all over the world, get up and bare their testimony about the Savior. It was absolutely amazing! 

On Friday it was really fun! We did exchanges with the assistants and went to Leeds for the day. And I was with elder Klingler and he is such a funny kid. We had an awesome time knocking on doors in Leeds.

But we found this funny kid named T......., had a good chat with him so the assistants are going to start teaching him. And the best part was we woke up early on Saturday to go play basketball for an hour or so, it was awesome. Only to end off the day with another exchange with the lads in our flat, so I went with elder Sicardi and we had loads of fun there!

Sunday was also a really good day because this Sunday we were able to participate in giving a recent convert I….., the aaronic priesthood and it was such an amazing experience. I love the power that the priesthood brings into our lives and it was so great to hear the bishop explain to I…..the role of the priesthood and how it blesses others. I'm so grateful for the chance to be a priesthood holder, so all you priesthood holders out there, you better honor your priesthood because that's what it deserves. 

Doesn't sound like too busy of a week but it was. It has been a good week and next thing ya know I'll be in my last transfer so I hope this time slows down!

Love you all, have a great week and don't let it go by too fast!

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Here's some pics,

Went to the coast this past week. Look at it........ so cold!

Craziest Saturday night

Feb 20 2017

Craziest night ever! And dejavu....

Well family and friends another week has gone by in the Greatest mission in the universe. And well it was a week of super fun and we have lots of fun stories to tell. So update on some people.

So S....... She is our one Chinese investigator and well she is progressing so well. How well?  we'll to give you an example in her last prayer she said, "Heavenly Father please help me to finish my assignments so I can get baptized earlier." So we are praying hard for her that it will work out. So we are looking for the 1st of march for her baptism. So we will be meeting with her this week to finalize everything and answer any more questions, so it should be good!

Also O...... our miracle Polish girl. She couldn't come to church this week because of work. It's a big downfall when you’re a foreigner in this country and you have like the worst hours possible but she is meeting with us hopefully on Wednesday so it should be really good.

We went around town last p-day and got some sweet pictures I will have to share will all y'all! But something fun happened on Saturday!


So we did an exchange this week with one of our district leaders. And it was elder Cottrell my old companion! So I got to go with him for the day and it was like the funniest day ever, we had so much success finding people, and the whole day we were talking about the fun times we had back in Sheffield it was so great! Wow I just love that guy.
But I am sad because he goes home in like 3 weeks. But then the craziest thing happened on Saturday night! Think is why we obey the word of Wisdom. Hope you like stories people!

So once upon a time there was a Saturday night, and we decided that we wanted to do a small blitz with some elders in the Zone. So we took the drive out to a small city of Pontefract. This being a smaller city among the areas in the zone, so we figured it to be a quiet place. However, upon arrival we instantly knew the mistake we had made as we saw a multitude of drunk people in the streets! How on earth could this be, in a small little village of York!

But trusting all would be well we split off and headed into the city where we attempted to spread the Word of God. Needless to say none were bothered to hear what we had to say, but from what we saw we will never be the same. Amongst walking the streets there came a rumble of motors from behind. And we see four lads upon the backs of 2 quads! All in black and masks they spread their terror through the streets plastering all they saw - cars on the road, on the sidewalks -  with their fire extinguishers. Many were covered in white powder as they rolled through the town causing havoc. 

Passing by us once or twice, heeling some words here and there but the lord protected us that night! Only to end he night by tossing the worn out extinguishers into a car window and a McDonald's shop window. After that point we knew it was our time to leave so we left that small town and came home, committing ourselves that we would never drink alcohol in any sense, and always stay away from pontefract on a Saturday night!

The End!
Love you all have a great week!



There was a time I left my iPad in a flat, so I told them to toss it
to me! Yes I know bad idea

Feb 13 2017

Throwback to getting my left sided driving license! 

This week truly has been a week of miracles. I have gained a true testimony of the words, "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven." We have absolutely been seeing them this past week. So let's get started shallllllllllllllllllll we!

Alright so to start off the week we had a fun P-day if you saw the video last week. But is week was just full of planning we spent most of the day on Tuesday prepping, and setting up for our Zone training on Wednesday and it went so well. We focused on progression of investigators and it was just awesome, that same day we also had interviews with President Turvey. Can I just say that man is so inspired, I have grown a deep love for president Turvey he really cares about the mission and really wants what is best for us. It was just a great day!

Alright so for these MIRACLES!!!! 

So this week we found 3 new investigators which is soooooo awesome but I'm not going to bore you to death about them but I'll share some cool experiences about them. 

So Tuesday we had the craziest experience. So we had a potential named O...... who is from Poland and was interested in the English class that the church does. Well she texts us and says, "I want to learn about your church." So we gave her a chapel tour and the whole time she was asking way deep questions, and was going along with everything that we taught her. We ended in the Baptismal font and finished teaching the restoration and all of a sudden she asks, "so what are your rules?" 

*this is where us and our member Callum give each other that look you give when you have no idea what to say.

But we thought we would play it cool and just say we will teach her overtime so she can understand everything and see the reasoning behind it. BUTTTTTTT  that's when she says, "why, just tell me."

So me and elder Norton gave each other the look again and said well okay, so we taught her the word of wisdom, law of Chasity, 10 commandments, and keeping the sabbath day holy all at once. At the end, "Any questions?" This is her response, 

"Hmmmm... well I do like alcohol, but............................................ I can live those." 

😳😲😱😵😧😦😮🤘👊🙏🙌🎉🎊🎈🎉🎊 like WHATTTTT.??? 

Committed to live them all at once! Can you believe that!? I can barely believe it so I know it's hard for you guys cause I saw it!! Wow miracle!

Okay moving on,  so this week we also have a Chinese investigator named S....... and she is the most sincere investigator ever. She is really struggling being away from home but has loved meeting with us, she loves prayer and she loves church. She is supposed to be getting baptized on the 24th of Feb but our only concern is if we can teach her everything in time. So please pray that we can teach her everything and get her baptized this month! That would be so amazing! But she is a miracle for us, we will have to get a picture with her to show you. But wow sorry I'm just happy writing this letter. 

So yeah that's what our week has been like, we have been traveling all over the zone seeing  missionaries, planning and meetings. Finding and teaching it has been so crazy and the weeks are going by so fast. But we have been truly blessed here this week. 

So just a quick little though for you guys! 

1. Are we predictable, dependable and repeatable? President Nelson mention these words when discussing the laws of Heaven, but also the laws of life in the YSA January devotional. It made me consider these questions... When we are face with challenges and situations where we will have to stand for our beliefs, will we be predictable? That when these situations arise, those around us will know that we will stand for what's right. Are we dependable? Can He our Father in Heaven trust us enough to know that we will always bear witness of Him. And are our actions repeatable? Do others know that we will never change and that we will continue to be that predictable and dependable example of Christ. 

Love you all and hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Me and my Italian friend Elder Sicardi! He lives with us, poor guy!

Us with our sweet member Callum!

Feb 6 2017

Wow what a crazy week it has been. It has been so fun to be here with elder Norton. We have had a lot of fun this week. 

So after arriving here in York on Tuesday we spent the day finishing Transfers and moving everyone around and picking up and doing Transfers all that fun stuff and that was just a really crazy day but it was really fun. 

On Wednesday we went to two different district meetings and it was great. So first we had ours and we had a really good one about the fruits of the spirit and elder W(?) did a pretty good job at it. And then we rushed down to elder Cottrell's meeting and they also had a really good meeting about resolving concerns. It was great elder cottrell is such a fun guy. Then later on that night we had a fun Chinese party and we had 12 non-members I think come to it and we got some potentials out of it but it was fun to get right stuck in to the Chinese work here in York. 

Then Thursday was just crazy and Friday was great. Mission Leadership council is a great meeting and I really enjoy seeing all these amazing missionaries talk about the work and discuss how we can help the work move forward. 

Sunday was a very fun day. Walking into church and seek all the old members that I used to see. And most of them remembered me which was a great miracle I didn't think that anyone would remember but they did. So I am very excited for this work here in York! It's going to be a great transfer. I never realised how many meetings Zone leaders go to and also all the extra work that goes in, this is going to be a really good transfer of stretching myself! Well that's all for me!

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Pics

1- What we did for Zone PDay

2 MLC

3 elder Norton cleaning bird poop

4 the old Huddersfield Zone