I'm old and on my last transfer.....

July 10 2017

Not many missionaries can say they served for 18 Transfers, but this one can. I can't believe it's come down to this LAST TRANSFER on my mission. where did the time go?? And the weirdest part is on Wednesday I'll officially be the oldest missionary in the mission! I'm getting old me, some grey hairs might be coming in. 

But I'm very excited it's going to be great! Obviously with Transfers happening this past week y'all want to know what's happening with me and elder Tsai. Well I'm being transferred to Hull to be a junior companion and elder Tsai is moving to York to be a Zone leader there!! 

Haha JUST KIDDING!  we're both staying in Leeds to finish elder Tsai training! Which I am very happy about. But this week was awesome for several reasons. 

First! Because this is a first on my whole mission. 

We were at church and I was kinda bummed out because all of our investigators couldn't come to church this week and we had worked hard this week in our finding and I was a bit down, so there I was sitting next to our pal E........... in the ward, when after sacrament meeting, bishop runs up to me and says, "elders a family just walked in to church and their wanting to meet with missionaries." WHHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTTTT???????? Yeah that happened so, we have a sweet mom with three teenage kids that we will start teaching this Tuesday. Talk about miracles in Leeds!! How bout the Heavenly Father is soooo good!! I love him! 

So this week we had to drop some people that we were teaching. So like the M........... family (Romanian family) they just weren't progressing so we won't be seeing them anymore. Really sad but I know that every time we drop someone the lord blesses us with someone new and he did big time. 

This week we had 2 baptisms in the ward which was really good. The first one was for a guy named W.............. and he was baptized on Friday and we took our friend L....... to it. She said it was interesting but didn't have much to say about it really. But we are working hard with her so pray that he heart will be softened to the gospel. We had a super awesome lesson on the Plan of Salvation and during the Atonement part the spirit was so strong, you could almost touch it, but she just can't decide if it's just her or the spirit? Like does it matter- either way it's awesome!! But pray for her! 

On Saturday we were on exchanges with the district leader. So we headed into their area to knock on some doors, I went with elder minnich, he is from Texas. But we had a good time knocking on some doors and also taught some sweet people they are working with. Then we had to hurry back to our area because elder Tsai was doing his very first baptism. It was the sisters recent Convert, but we helped teach every now and again so elder Tsai did the baptism in Chinese. That was cool, he was excited and nervous as well,  but everything went smoothly. 

Sunday was a typical Sunday, had a less active lie right to our faces about why he couldn't go to church, it's funny how the spirit just tells you so openly about people's thoughts. Like discernment is real. They say one thing and the spirit tells you the opposite. I wouldn't know what to do if the spirit wasn't helping us out. 

Other than that our week was spent finding new people, which is good there are a lot of new students so we can actually find people who are staying in England and not leaving next month. 

But hope you all have a great week!!! 

Love,

Elder HanksínéLÀÏ

2 week update!

July 3 2017

The district at Toby Carvery

Hope you all have a wonderful week over the fun festivities of America's independence celebration. Haha!  we will just be knocking on some doors or somthing to celebrate us missionaries. But this week was so good.

This week was so fun because we were able to find a new investigator named L…. She is obviously from China but it was cool we were just chillin’  haha-  not really-  we were finding on Monday night and we weren't sure where to go but then I had this impression just to start calling potentials that we had found, and eventually we got L…. to answer and she came to FHE with us and really liked it and then we got to teach her on Wednesday so that was an awesome miracle.

With our investigator K…… he just straight up told us that he wasn't going to be baptized but still wanted to meet with us, but we obviously don't have time to just go around and chill with him so we are going to have to stop visiting K…… sadly but I know God will provide for us.

This week we also had the chance to go play some football with our Romanian family. It has been so slow with them but it's okay because sometimes it just takes some time. But we are praying that it will all work out.

Blending in at the Uni

So with the title! This Sunday we had a fireside at President Turvey's house which was really fun. And the topic was the birth of Christ!!  Hahaha so we celebrated Christmas in July. Hahaha it gave people a good laugh and the neighbours even came over because they heard us singing Christmas hymns. But it was so fun haha lots of good music and I also got to see like 5 previous companions. I'll send some pics. But it was sooooo good.

the York Crew

The Chinese speaking crew plus some extras...

So that's me this week. Just a quick thought for you all. A good friend of mine told me that the more you worry about life, the less you get to see the blessings you have in life! Hope that makes sense-  they said it way better than I did!
                 
Anyways love you all!!

Elder Hanks韓長老

June 26 2017

Hey everyone! What a week this has been for me and my wonderful companion. It's been full of good things with a few bad but I'm pretty sure that missionaries can only complain about 3 things.

1. The weather
2. How quickly time goes.
3 when investigators don't keep commitments.

And I only have the second one right now so that's good! Haha I didn't know what to call this email, but elder Tsai loves noodles so we have eaten lots this week so hence the random title.

                           

But this week was great! So this week we started to teach a new family called the S……. Soooo awesome so they have 3 little kids and they seriously are like my favourite people, I just feel like I have known them for so long. But we taught them once, and then they came to church on Sunday!!!!! Sooo happy!:)

Kirkstall Abbey

This week we also got to meet up with our boy K…… and have a lesson with him, and during the lesson he just randomly says that he is coming to church. And guess what yes he came! So that was so good. It was a good week of church for us!

We also had a cool experience with this older lad. We were walking to the bus stop to go home for the night and this guy calls us over and asks if we can help him. Not knowing how we said yes naturally, and turns out there was this daughter with her like 87 yr old dad on the floor. So we helped the poor man get up, which was actually quite difficult even with 3 people. But the cool part was the daughter apologized to us and said, "I guess I need to change my perspective towards you mormons."

So changing hearts every day!!!

Also cool thing was this week we were asked to go to the hospital twice to give members a blessing. Both had an accident and broke their left hip so it was cool to have random people give us a call and ask for some help. It was a really cool experience.

This week we also had interviews with President Turvey.  And that was really good hahaha all we talk about now is staying strong until the end, and how elder Tsai is doing so it was a good interview. But that's pretty much it for us!! We are going to an abbey today so it should be fun!! I'll send the pics of it!


                

Love you all
Ai nimen!!
Elder Hanks韓長老

June 19 2017
I am not joking, it was like yesterday that I got here to England and now I have sooooooo much time left!  But this week was like record heat temperatures here so I have been wearing a short sleeve
shirt the whole time! It has been great! We have had fun this week and treated ourselves a bit.

Our Romanian family was supposed to come to church this week but then they cancelled in the early morning so that was very sad. But we will get them there next week. But we are seeing them on Tuesday so hopefully we are able to help them come to church and set a day for baptism with them.

With K........we had something cool happen. So K........ had this issue with praying but we couldn't figure out why, but on our last lesson we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and then at the end of the lesson he asked if we could pray with him for something he had that night so that was a big miracle!

We also found a new Chinese guy named H....... But he has got a lot on with uni and he is traveling so it's going to be such a challenge to work with him but we are optimistic about it. Other than that we are working hard to find new people and we are doing our best! Elder Tsai is awesome he is so humble and so willing to try so I am very happy to be serving with him.But that's all for me!Love you allElder hanks 韓長老

I'm still singing!

June 12 2017

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

MC Noodle King - enjoying best noodles ever! 

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

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

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

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

Leeds University

But funny experience for ya- 

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

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

cool shopping center

Love you all! 

Elder Hanks韓長老

                                                 we are obediently excelling at language study!

faith singing throw back to Billingham

Big city of Leeds, training & oh, yea - the Piano Guys

June 4 2017

Well just to start off this little email here with, LEEDS IS MASSIVE!! Feels like I'm in NYC or something. So it's been fun trying to find our ways around Leeds-  haha lots of phone calls to the sisters for directions! But it has been really fun and we have had a good time already. Leeds has the biggest YSA program in the mission so there are loads of YSA here in the ward and I already feel like I'm one of them (but as a missionary not a YSA) cause ya know can't do that yet. But already got a few jokes played on me so hopefully we can work with some of them. But cool things that happened this week.

So first obviously is elder Tsai. He is a great kid, so humble and willing to try which is so helpful. However has a hard time with English but we make sure we are doing language study every day because sometimes there is a language barrier but to be honest I think I need it more than he does. Haha! oooohhh my Chinese is so bad! But he is a great cook, which is just what I need for my last transfers, is to get fat!:)

But one cool thing that happened this was we found a Romanian family who said they wanted to be taught and then they fed us food which was really good. But they all want to be baptized and come to church but there are a few things we need to check before that happens. But such an awesome family and they have 6 kids!

Another really cool miracle happened on Saturday. Was we had found 3 people and set up lessons with all of them but they all flogged us! Haha yay!😄 so we went back to fining and the first Chinese guy we saw we talked to. Turns out I met this guy 2 years ago in York during the floods!!!! It was really awkward this is our dialogue
" i know you"
- haha no you don't.
"Yeah I have talked to you before."
- I don't think so we just got here.
"No in York, when it flooded we cleaned up a park."
Sure enough it was true and so we went and had a lesson with him and it was really cool! He is a PHD student so very busy but he was so nice!

Another cool thing was I got to meet the Piano guys! Yaaaasssss. So John Schmidt's son is in my mission so they did a special stop by on their world tour to do a fireside in Leeds and it was absolutely amazing! Soooo good and they are so funny! It was such a cool night and very spiritual as well. Also being close to President is also a bonus-  haha we have already had some good laughs together! But it's been a good week here in Leeds. Looking forward to another good one next week!

Love you all!
Elder Hanks 韓長老

Pics
1. Our Romanian family

2. Elder Tsai's cooking skills

3. Leeds is our turf! 

4. Our new home, or right in front of our home!  

5. Saying bye the night before all my buds went home to utah! My tie
almost matched!

6. Picking up my second boy!

7. Spending a day with E. Iakopo because his comp was in a meeting.

8. The old Billingham crew! Miss these guys a ton!

Ligit week of Service, and TRANSFERSSSSS!!

May 29 2017

Are those farmers you ask?

our finished product!

when you see the sun for 4 days and do yard work service, you get farmer tan lines like this! 

photo shot (or photo bomb)  with a members plush dog....

 Hello there everyone! I'm going to use a computer this week because its easier to type on one than an ipad. But this week was soo awesome because it was literally sunny all week long, like no joke, not a cloud in the sky for like 4 days and so the sun was out and it was amazing!!!!!! soo good, so we took advantage of it and we sent out a text to all the ward and also all the less actives and investigators that we are working with to try and do some sort of service for them. And in the end we spent the whole week doing service, well okay not the whole week but we spent tons of time doing lawns for people. We joked about putting a sticker on our car that said, "Mormon lawn care" but we didn't. But i will show you some pictures of the aftermath of our week of service. hahaha wearing suits was a pain this week! 

So lots of gardening, and then also we were able to meet a members girlfriend. Her name is T......... and we went over there and taught her about the church and we ended up scheduling her for baptism for late june so that was really awesome! Members are the key to baptisms just so you all know -  if you have friends,  let the missionaries teach them because they going to get baptized! So that was a big miracle for us. 

As well we swapped flats with the sisters because they were having some issues with their next door neighbors, so they sent the "lads" in and we just went over the first day and cut their garden and now they love us - so hey, mending hearts all over the place! So we had to clean our flat, like really clean it because sisters were going in and so yeah that was that! 

But I guess a very important piece of info in this email is what is going to be happening to me the rest of my mission. We had transfers and looks like my mission is now set in stone! ahhhhhh! 

I will be transferred to the capital of the mission. I am going to LEEDS!!!!!! Where I will be training again!! haha that should be really fun! His name is Elder Cai, (tsai) and he is from taiwan! thats companion number 2 from taiwan, so that will be fun to go back to chinese work and be so closer to my mission President. So this is the last area for me! Unless something goes wrong but lets pray that it doesn't. But I am going to miss this area. I am going to miss being with Elder Iakopo he is like the best kid ever! It has been so fun to serve around him but I guess we will have to wait and see what these next 2 transfers hold in store for me. 

But I hope you all have a great week, and enjoy the warmer weather that's coming your way! love you guys!! 

Elder Hanks 

--

Elder Hunter Hanks

Leeds England, Mandarin Chinese

Can you believe it, I'm singing!

May 22 2017

Well just like that we got to the end of another transfer and it's going just way to fast. Luckily I get 18 of them so that makes me a bit luckier than other elders. 
But this week was really good we had two baptisms in the Zone which both went really well, and elder Iakopo and I sang at both of them. I know can you believe it I'm singing at things I have never sung at things before - now I have done it like 6 times.  We also sang a special musical number at church on Sunday for our ward conference. How bout that people?!

Our version of "homemade" ice cream 

But this week we had interviews as well this week which were good. It always fun to be able to see President Turvey. Also I got to hear president Turvey sing and play the piano which was very unique to hear from your mission President but it was so great! He is a good singer and it's no wonder why he loves elder Iakopo so much, because they are both so musically talented.

Let's see we also got a member to take us on a really fun hike it's called Roseberry Toppings. It was a great time and we got some homemade ice cream after wards it was awesome! So it was a really great week for us. We also found 2 new investigators, one is 12 and a really cool kid. And one is a family from Zimbabwe. They are so awesome!

           












But that's all folks! Hope you all have a great week!         
        

Trying to find the sun.... I got close! 

                                                                                                                                                                           

Love Elder Hanks!