BEST WEEKEND EVER!!

Oct 24 2016

Well people we are just going to skip the week and go right to the weekend okay!! Some pretty great things happened, but before I do let me tell you about Tuesday okay? okay cool, not like you guys really have a choice but ya know anywho........ I am just going to apologize now this is probably going to be the longest letter I ever write on my mission so be Prepared!

So Tuesday right long day of street contacting like all day long but then we had a baptismal interview for S........!? (Interview was totally supposed to be on Monday but some one got a bit tired and fell asleep and missed her interview?.? WHAT!!??!! I know! However it actually turned out to be a huge Miracle like we are talking David and Goliath size Miracle here people!

So we are waiting for S........ to show up right and we'll she shows up AND she brings a friend?! Like who brings a friend to an interview?! but ya know it's cool I don't really mind! As long as she chooses to get baptized right! Well coolest thing happens right soooooo......
     They sit down right, and immediately her friend (k...... who is from Ghana and speaks English -  haven't done English in a lesson for a while) starts to fire all sorts of questions at us! And in my mind I'm all going down tragedy lane here thinking she has come to bash us when we are supposed to be having an interview here with her friend?! But luckily I was wrong. Her questions were so good!! Next thing you know elder Zheng is translating the interview to S....... and me and the another missionary go sit with K........  We felt inspired to teach the Plan of Salvation and no joke the whole time she is just nodding her head in totally agreement, saying "yes that makes sense" and so on... Easily by far one of the most powerful, spiritual lessons I have ever had on my mission. The spirit was just so strong I couldn't believe it. And at the end of the lesson this is what she shared with us,
" Never in my life have I felt this kind of feeling before. I have lived a life full of anxiety thinking that I was never good enough, I had no purpose in life, that I wasn't loved or belonged. And what you just shared with me, has changed my life for what I now know to be eternity. Thank you for changing my life!" Then the best thing that I just love hearing more than ever. "You"re view on God, is the best version I have ever heard, this makes way more sense than any other religion, I want this to be true!"

LIKE WHAT PEOPLE!!!! This is on the first lesson! And she is sooooo prepared she has been waiting for this her entire life, and expressed so much of her worries and struggles that she has had, and how the gospel is going to solve every single one of those issues! She is so excited to finally pray and know that she is going to be heard and to read the Book of Mormon, she is so eager to learn about her Loving father in Heaven! It was by far the Highlight of my mission! And to make it even better S........ passed her interview that day! So it was an insanely good day for me and Elder Zheng! What sooo good! So yah really really good day on Tuesday!

So took my theory driving test here in England, really hard, but I passed. So I got 2 of 3 test passed now for the hardest part! I almost have my license!!

Friday: well Friday was a good day as well. On Friday we had the baptism of S.......! It was awesome to finally have her baptism it made this week feel so long waiting for it. But everything turned out great. We prepped the food, everyone was all time, S........ came early. C......M..... our recent convert nevertheless gave a perfect opening prayer. I gave a talk and I didn't butcher it so that was a relief. And S......... only had to be baptized twice (because of long hair issues) but it all worked out great! So glad to have her now a member of the church! Sorry this email is probably really boring for a lot of y'all, but it was a really good week.

The Chen Dynasty!  Left to Right: Elder Glenn (Elder Liss' current trainee), Elder Liss (Elder Chen's former trainee, and my bro), Elder Southwick (Elder Chen's current trainee my other bro), LEGENDARY ELDER CHEN, Me (Elder Chen's first trainee:), Elder Leavitt (My trainee), Elder McTavish (elder Leavitt's current trainee).

                                                      

So now for the good stuff. So on Friday night right after the Baptism us and the Sisters ran to the train station to catch a train down to Leeds. Then when we arrived in Leeds. And when we got off the train poor sister Huang... well she left her bag on the train, ya know the thing with everything in it like iPad, money, credit cards, passport, missionary planner, train tickets.... etc all the necessary things. Haha so after arriving in Leeds at 9:30 we didn't leave the train station until ten when they got her bag off the train in Sheffield. So some change of plans there! So the assistants came and got the sisters and had to take them on a 2 hour drive to Sheffield to get her bag and because we were staying with the Assistants that night, you know what that means. YES PEOPLE..... we did not get to bed until 2:30am sat morning. Only to be told that we then had to wake up at 4:30 to help set up with the meeting! Haha it was so fun, two hours of sleep in a 3 hour meeting but I couldn't be happier do you want to know why?!.,,.,..? Well I got to shake hands with President Russell M. Nelson, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Richard Kearon Europe Area President, Bishop Gerald Caussé of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Saban of the Area Presidency, and all of their wives! What sooo amazing. And President Nelson said Ni hao to me, since we have that Chinese connection! I don't have the time or the room to tell you everything but I simply want you to know this! They are truly called of God. 3 hours of uplifting messages, celestial music and A Christmas message from President Nelson! Absolutely amazing! I will just share with you my favorite quote of the meeting,

"God can easily, willingly and lovingly give you all that he has, and we can enjoy all that he has. But he cannot give us who he is, we have to earn that. And that's why we are here."      SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! 

The whole Leeds Mission! ( E. Hanks right in the center behind the elder with the turquoise tie)

I love missions, they are the greatest thing ever. I have experienced so much more than what I ever expected to, I have met and shook hands with Apostles and Prophets, strengthened and solidified my testimony of this gospel, met famous Singers (Osmonds), made life long friends, overcomes struggles and challenges, seen a new country, learn a new language, and most importantly I have leaned what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, which is only obtained through a lifetime of Christlike service. I have learned of my Merciful older  Brother And his amazing role in my life, and truly learned that this truly is His only true Church on the Earth today! I love my Father in Heaven!

Love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Hanks韓長老

The AP shirt that they won't let me sign......

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

Oct 17 2016

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

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

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

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

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

Love

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Pictures

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

2. How I felt after the baptism

3. Our sweet setup

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

Oct 10 2016

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

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

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

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

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Sent from my iPad 

Pictures

1.  Cool chapel in Newcastle.

2. My motto

3. District train ride

4. Zone Service

Great Conference week of miracles!

Oct 3 2016

Ni hao! How is everyone doing this amazing week. I hope you all enjoyed your week and more especially enjoyed the 10 wonderful hours of conference. It was so amazing to hear the prophetic counsel of our apostle and prophets. I think those hours were by far the best and fastest hours of the week. Never in my life have I ever felt that the talks were written specifically for me, I felt like it was me and them. I know you all enjoyed it as much as I did, all of the talks were so amazing, and I encourage you all, along with me, to reread the talks and to continue to study the words at the prophets. A perfect way to end a great week. Pure and simple doctrine taught, focused on our mark of Jesus Christ, with missionaries involved, thru the restoration of the prophet Joseph Smith. And family Get started on your MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK!!!

Monday: the best thing that happened on Monday was when we took our investigator S...... to FHE.  All of the members and other investigators were there, our investigator announced to everyone that she will be baptised in October! WHAT!!? Sooo cool so we have planned for the 21st so we are working on an interview for her and praying that everything works out!

Tuesday: Tuesday was fun we had a fun day for me and elder Zheng. The members invited us to lunch with them, and took us to a posh Chinese restaurant. And the best part was that they paid for us! It was sooo awesome and so good let me tell you! Wowza, gotta love Chinese food & great members! Then we had a good day of work and then ended the day with B.... our member who went home last Wednesday. We went and had tea with him, to say goodbye. So Tuesday was full of good Chinese food! Pretty good day, if I do say so myself! Now I want to tell you about the most amazing miracle ever that happened to me and elder Zheng.

C.....M.....: 

C.....M...... is one of our investigators that we have had for  awhile. We found him a while back and he was a really shy, quiet kid. Who was really only interested in learning English. We met with him 2 times before he went back to china for a month. Well he came back this week and we called him to see if he was back and we got an appointment with him. Normally after a month break like this, people don't want to keep learning, and they drop us. So we met with C....M.... and we start talking about China and how it was. Then came the scary part to ask him what he remembered from before. And guess what he remembered everything!!!!! What!?? I know and not only that we asked him if he had prayed while he was gone, and he then told us how he had several times, and every time he did he felt something. Immediately we taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized and he accepted for October 15!!!! What a miracle. He is the best person in the world, I just love him to death!  I pray that everything will work out with him too. We have met him 3 times this week and should be having his interview next week! He even came to conference with us sooooo.......Please pray for these two, that everything will work out for S....... and C....M....! If so we could have a baptism 2 weeks in a row! That would be amazing for this branch - we need it!

On Friday I drove us down to Leeds again for another meeting. And we were there all day long, so we had the entire day Friday out of our area. But one cool thing that President Turvey announced was that we are officially going digital. We will now be using our iPads for our daily planners and area book. What sooo crazy!! That will be so exciting! So we are waiting for the approval to see when it's really going to happen!

Then Saturday besides the start of conference we had a good day. We met with C.....M..... again, we also taught another guy named T....., we shared with him the Plan of Salvation (or what we Chinese missionaries say "the textbook of life") for our Chinese students. And we invited him to be baptized and he accepted the goal of the 29th of December. So it's going to take a lot of work with him to make that goal, but I am confident that he will be able to achieve it! Then of course to end it off, was the wonderful blessing

of Conference. It was a really really good week! Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week of the first week of October! Time is just going by way to fast!

Elder Hanks 韓長老

Sent from my iPad 

Busy, busy and more busy!

Sept 25 2016

Well another week here has just flown by and we have lots of things to cover, from meetings, to exchanges, to teaching, to transfers, and more so let us "get stuck in" shall we?

Monday: Well Monday was a day of firsts. After spending a much needed day just relaxing at the chapel, we went out finding that night because our investigators couldn't come to FHE, and there was like no Chinese people out on the streets that night. When returning home to our flat, some hooligans decided to throw some eggs at us. Luckily I inherited my dads cat-like reflexes and I didn't get hit! (Neither did elder Zheng) so that was exciting! Then to make that night more exciting at 2 in the morning, all of the neighborhood cats decided to get together and have a social outside of our window! Ooh my goodness I have never heard so many cats meow at the same time!! Uhhhhh..... that was lame!

On Wednesday we had a fun day. We got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and me and Elder Ferrell got to go together! Sooo fun... me and him are really good buds, and it's always fun to be able to serve with him. We went and knock doors in a uni area and university students are so funny! We found one guy who loved the NFL so he was easy to talk to we got in and taught him the restoration! Pretty sweet guy, his name is T..... and he is a professional gamer. Like does tournaments and gets paid and stuff! Pretty crazy! Anyways, but then we had to go pick up a car from Ashington that night, which isn't really close, so we didn't get back until way late on Wednesday night!

Thursday morning was bright and early! We got up at 5:30 in the morning for a very special occasion. We had an amazing meeting in Leeds and it was for all of the Language missionaries in the whole mission. It was so awesome so the 7 of us Chinese missionaries in Newcastle had to drive down early in the morning so me and Elder Ferrell drove two cars down to Leeds-  a 2 hour drive! It was sooo scary and so fun to drive! Wow I miss driving, so now I am going to get my license, yes mom and dad, I  still haven't gotten it. But our meeting was soooo good it was all day long. With all of us there, the assistants  and President and Sister Turvey talked about the challenges and improvements we could make for the Chinese work. It was awesome, I just grew such my love for president and I am so grateful for his passion and desire to improve the language program. This is going to be a great couple of months! Then we drove back just in time for branch council that night. Meetings all day, you could say that we were pretty tired. 

All the Chinese speakers! 

Thursday was pretty sweet. We got a new investigator on Thursday. His name is M..... He is so awesome, he was so interested in prayer and was so eager to pray with us. It was so awesome, so we taught him the first lesson and scheduled him for the October 22. Then to make it even better, he came to church this week and he did really well!  He said after church that he felt "really comfortable." So we are excited to work with him!

Also we received this: 

"Dear Elder and Sisters,

I am so so excited to confirm that we will be privileged to hold a Mission Conference on Saturday 22nd October 2016 at the Huddersfield Stake Centre from 10am to 12pm..

In attendance will be: President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop Gerald Causse, Presiding Bishop, Elder Patrick Kearon, Europe Area President, Elder Gary B. Sabin of the Europe Area Presidency."

Sunday was really sweet. So of course we got more people to come to church and at church we had the best sacrament service ever. We had two of our members give their farewell testimonies. And the spirit in the room was so strong, wow it was just so amazing. We are really going to miss those members, one of them B...... pictured below is such an amazing guy. Wow it's going to be sad not to have them. 

Then this Sunday marked the end of a transfer here, wow what a quick six weeks it has been up here in Newcastle I can't believe I have been here for that long!

So what it happening with the Chinese district this transfer you ask? :

Me and Elder Zheng: we are both staying!!!!!:)

Elder Lui and Jensen: they are also staying!!!!

Sister So and Sorensen: Sister sorensen will be leaving us, to go to Leeds. And sister Huang from Sheffield is coming up, so we will be in the same district again!

They are starting to film for the Transformers movie!

Well this week was really fun. We are still working with A...... and she is progressing really slowly but she is starting to talk a whole lot more which is awesome! Life is sooo good for me right now. I am so happy to be here and I know that this was the absolute best decision I have ever made. The church is true and I am so glad to be apart of it.

Love 

ElderHanks 韓長老

Sent from my iPad 

Wowza what a week!

Sept 19 2016

Hello again everyone. Sorry for last weeks email, I forgot the pictures and didn't have much time to email. But this one is better so I hope that this makes up for last weeks email. So let's try and get it all covered shall we.

This week started off wonderfully on Monday, when we had ourselves a zone BBQ and let me tell you that was some fun! I will show you the pictures this time, but there was about £70 worth of meat alone, and then all the other good stuff. It was really good - me and the Zone Leader Elder Stirling we were the grill masters of the day! It was sooo fun - lots of food, tons of sports good laughs and good gospel music! But then the day got even better when we took one of our investigators to FHE after P-day and it was absolutely hilarious!  They did the lesson, and then had some food and then we played a game. But the person in charge of the game didn't show up, so I taught them how to play signs! And ooh wow, how fun! Chinese people choose the funniest signs ever-  oh wow so good ! Monday was just like the best day ever.

                   

On Thursday of this week we did exchanges with the other Mandarin Elders, Elder Lui and Elder Jensen. I went with elder Lui and it was so fun-  we had a ton of fun on our exchange. The entire day was all about inviting people to our branch activity on Friday. So it was really fun, we would just walk up and say, in Chinese of course, "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!" And it surprised so many people that we knew what that was, so we invited sooooo many people to come to our activity and we had tons and tons of success. That day we found 7 people so that was really sweet. Also up here in Newcastle I tend to meet a lot of people from Singapore and Malaysia so it really helps having had my older brother serve there, because now I can talk a little bit with them about their home and it helps out a ton! But yeah Thursday was a really good day for us. All together we found 10 people in one day so that is really really cool!

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Friday was one crazy crazy busy day! So normally of Friday's we have weekly planning and that's it, but not this Friday. This Friday we had weekly planning and District meeting with president and Sister Turvey. It was really fun to have president in a small meeting like that too,  where he can interact with you more, and they really enjoyed hearing the Chinese part of things too. President Turvey is huge on languages, he just loves them. There in that meeting,  we found out that in our mission there are only 12 Chinese speakers in the whole mission. And six of them are in Newcastle! So it made me feel really privileged to be a Chinese speaking missionary. And no one is coming in for a whole year so we are all going to be with each other for a really long time! Haha which I don't mind. Then after that we had to get ready for our Branch Activity that us missionaries practically put together to get people to come to. And it went really well we had about 30 people there and no joke 18 of them were investigators and non members! WHAT!!?? I know sooo good it was awesome! Let me tell you Chinese people know what it means to bring food, they brought like the best food ever, ooohhhhhhh so good!

Sunday was a fun day for us as well. So this Sunday a lot of fun things happened. The first being that in Newcastle they have this massive monument in the middle of their town. So this morning while we were in town waiting for our investigators to bring them to church, we found out that the New transformers was being filmed at the monument so when it comes out,  look for me! Jk I wasn't in it. But still cool because that doesn't happen every day. Then at church elder Zheng and I were teaching Gospel Principles class and we decided to teach about the Holy Ghost and its role. So it turns out it was just me teaching because elder Zheng wanted to test my Chinese. So in order to make it fun for these Chinese students, so that they like church. I came up with an idea to use chairs to create "life's obstacles" - each chair had a challenge that Chinese students face here, and we had one person act like the spirit and had to whisper to someone who was blindfolded to represent us, and to guide them through the chairs.  We had things like "media" "friends" "school" and other things to distract them from the spirit. Then we taught about baptism and how we can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and have him as a companion by our side, and our "Holy Ghost" then by his side led him through the chairs. Hopefully it left a clear impression to all the investigators and members of the blessing of the Holy Ghost. I thought that it went well. Then that night we had a party with all the extra food from our activity, and we had chocolate cake and ice cream to celebrate the start of the last week of the transfer!

Then a quick little spiritual thought for you all: A quote from Neil A. Maxwel,
"God does not begin by asking us about our Ability,
but only about our Availability,
and then if we prove our Dependability,
he will increase our Capability."
Our Heavenly Father Already knows our weaknesses, knows our strengths. He simply asks us to give more time to our callings, our families, those in need, and those around us. And to be patient in all we do, something I am greatly working on is Patience. Please be patient, and allow yourself some time to do something more for the Savior, so that he can then do something more for you.

Love you all and have a wonderful week.

Elder Hanks韓長老

Sept 12, 2016

This week started off amazing!!!! Wow what fun! Well family sorry,  I am just not coming home anymore, not after these two weeks, I am going to stay here forever! In the best mission in the Universe. But let's go through this AMAZING week shall we!?:)

Monday: so Monday was pretty chill, not much happened on Monday except for we got 3 of our investigators to come to FHE! So that was really awesome we had, T......, S......., and J...... all come. I was most excited about J......... coming. So that was really good but then we had to say bye to another member B...... who went home this Wednesday, so sad that everyone is leaving! 

Tuesday: Well Tuesday was Amazing! We had our First Zone conference with President Turvey and his are so different. Normally the meeting was held in the chapel, with the podium with president Pilkington.
However with president Turvey,  we should up, and the chapel was empty. In the gym however there was a massive circle of tables set up with a music stand in the middle. With president Turvey presiding, it was so much more interactive! Really different and really good. I had to give our purpose for the conference-  again! Like the 3rd time doing it at zone conference. I must be good at it or something? Jk but I did have to do some push ups at ZC, when we were showing some of our door knocking approaches, that got everyone laughing which was good. But my favorite thing that I got from conference was regarding Tea appointments .........   after zone conference we had a teaching appointment, tea appointments are now called "teaching appointments" to always remind us our purpose behind the food. But then we had a lesson with our investigator D......... and we were able to schedule her for baptism on Oct 8th.

So story time: While we were having a lesson with D......., a very interesting thing occurred. We we had just taught  the plan of salvation and we were then scheduling her for baptism. During the process the opposing force of all good tried to stop us, by sending two drunk men to us. Who stunk like drugs and alcohol and made fun of everything we stood for! It was terrible - the worst timing ever!
NEVERTHELESS Good/ God will always prevail, because the two men that interrupted our lesson, were Geordie! Which means the thickest accent in England (extremely hard to understand) so I was the only one who could understand what they were saying! So D.......... knew that they were saying bad things but the blessing was she didn't understand it! So it had little to no effect on her, or elder Zheng-  really only me. So we were still able to help her set a goal for baptism, I love being on His side!

Wednesday:
Haha well we had a fun day on Wednesday. We had some fun lessons and were able to get some new investigators. So the first lesson was with this really sweet guy named R........ He was asking so many good
questions! He was so into it, it was awesome. Unfortunately he goes home next week and so we won't be able to teach him anymore!:( but elder Zheng got his email and so they are going to keep talking about his questions and the gospel.  Then we met with T.........., in a coffee shop. And we taught him about the restoration and then scheduled him as well for the 24th of September because he goes home on the 28th. So we need a miracle with him.
Then we met with this Taiwanese girl named T........... She is awesome and we had a member R....... with us and they got along really well. So we were able to schedule her for the 8th of October. It was a really good day for us!

Won't run you through everyday but to say the least about Thursday and Friday they were just normal days of finding not much happened, except we got flogged one lesson which hasn't happened for a while but,  oh
well moving on. So to make up for it me and elder Zheng decided that we were going to make Oreo Milkshakes! So we got all the stuff that we needed and we got out the blender. And we starting mixing and the next thing we knew it was all coming out the bottom of the blender!  All of our stuff on to the floor, it was so depressing-  goodness we had a lot to clean up but,  luckily enough even with the spill,  we were still able to get two little cups worth of our shake, haha sadly this is not the first time this has happened to me! 

Saturday:
This was a good day as well we had 3 lessons on Saturday and they went pretty well. We met with T......again and taught him the plan of salvation, he seemed to have enjoyed it, but he just won't give us time for church. We tried so hard to convince him to come but his friend was coming in from somewhere so he didn't come this week. Hopefully we will get him next week. Then we also taught our  quiet friend. She is getting better she is talking more and more which is good. But we were talking about faith, and gaining a desire to know more and how it will make her happy. So we asked her what makes her happy. And you would never guess what she said.......   CONCERTS!? of all things, this shy girl loves concerts, like the loudest and craziest thing ever! Hahaha WHAT?!! Anyways but that was a pretty good lesson and we had to recommit all of them to read and pray because that is a big problem for lots of people, they just don't bother with it. Church okay, reading and praying no! Then we taught our other friend named R...... who is also pretty quiet, but we were able to teach him lesson 3 and it went well, but we are working with him to increase his faith right now so slowly but surely! Anyways yeah that was our day, pretty

darn good day.

That was our week, hope all is well with you all.
Take care

Elder Hanks