I'm not Mormon any more...

Aug 27 2018

Hello everyone,

I'll quickly address the subject to relieve any worries some might have. With the new church announcement about properly addressing the church by the name given by our Savior. So we had Elder Christofferson come to the MTC and give a devotional about it, which was pretty cool how he explained the importance and meaning behind the name given to The Church. So i'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but i'm not mormon (especially since Mormon died like 1600 years ago or so) :)

But what a week!! I don't know where to start! but I'll try to make it not too long. On like tuesday, Elder Gonzales twisted his ankle pretty bad playing volleyball, so we had to get crutches and our walking speed was cut in half, so that wasn't good. After a bit, he said is was just hurting too bad, so he asked to have a priesthood blessing to make it better. So I gave my first priesthood blessing this week! it was pretty cool! and now he can walk just fine!

Elder Guthrie carrying Elder Gonzales around until we got his crutches! 

Being the zone leader has been a really cool experience! I've been able to talk to and grow closer to all the elders in the zone. Also, we got new missionaries in our zone this week!! there were 11 new missionaries who came into our zone this week, one native korean, and two Filipinos. So we had to opportunity to show them around the MTC and give them like a welcome orientation. We are basically here to help them and answer whatever they need, so it's been a pretty cool experience here. 

Our mighty Korean Zone!

The korean is still coming along, it's still not easy! Korean grammar is just really messed up. If for example I wanted to say that "I know Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God" the Korean grammar would change it to "I through God's power Joseph Smith Book of Mormon translated know" so it's pretty messed up. but it's a work in progress!

The weeks go by so slowly here, I feel like it's been months, and in truth we aren't even halfway through our 9 weeks in the MTC, haha. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, we all would just rather be in Korea!

Story Time: It's not so much a story than it is just something that keeps happening. So many times while I've been here, I've repeatedly been asked "what is your ethnicity?"... by my companion, other elders in my zone, just a bunch of people! Haha, so of course I just tell them that I'm completely American, and very few believe me! There was one Elder this past week who asked me the question and "what ethnicity are my parents?" to which I told him that we were all just American. Haha, after that he just asked me "Why?" hahaha, I was so confused! I was just like "what do you mean why?" haha, they just don't believe me here I guess! so that's been happening, and will probably continue to happen for the next few years or so!

    (Max has Swiss, German, Swedish, English & Scottish ancestry - so you decide which one fits!)

At choir practice!                 

Much Love!

Elder Hanks

It's Monday again!!!

Aug 20 2018

You have to start getting creative with story, I mean study time.... 

I saw Elder McKay Baker (a wardie)  & Braxton Buchanan (HS friend & in my stake) 

Anyeonghasaeyo!

It's a Monday again and what a week!! I'll try to keep it shorter though :)

We had our first TRC's last week, which is basically us just teaching a member like a member lesson. It usually ends up being a student from BYU. We didn't know very much Korean, so most of our lessons usually end up being about prayer cause that's one of the only lessons we know how to teach, haha! So we taught this guy about prayer, and we found out that he had actually been struggling with remembering to pray because of school, work, and a lot of other busy stuff, and he said this was exactly what he needed! So check that out!

The Korean is still pretty hard, but it's progressing and getting better, and at least I can speak better than when I first got here!

                        

The oldest districts in our zone left, and the native Korean elders did too because they are only here for 3 weeks. So the last church meeting was great, great messages and they did a musical number in Korean, so that was cool. Our zone leaders were in that district, so they got released from their assignment and the new zone leaders are Elder Gonzales and I!!! Who would have thought! So that was a surprise! So we are over all the Korean Elders at the MTC! it's weird, this wednesday we have a new group of korean speaking missionaries coming in, so when they come in, we will have like 40 missionaries in our zone! So it'll be a fun, but very good learning experience! We were just surprised because there are still 2 other districts who came in 3 weeks before us, and we thought the zone leaders would come from there! but the zone was actually really happy for us, so that was reassuring. We get a flip phone in case our district president needs to contact us or the Info desk needs to contact one of the missionaries, so that's disappointing cause now we got to carry a phone around with us.

Story Time: It's not much of a story, but I don't know what else to call this portion of the email. But one of the elders in our zone had been collecting soda cans (with soda in them) from all the meals we get. He had made a mini castle in his room with 104 cans of soda!! it was insane, but they started drinking some of them after that. but since a lot of the elders were leaving, we had a going away celebration and brought out all the remaining soda, and luckily a few lemonades, to wish them off in a way, haha. So we laid all the soda out, and just like hung out as a zone, it was pretty fun. But not all the soda was used, and the elder who had them all in the first place is gone now, so I had to take care of the remaining cans. So now I had like 30 cans of soda in my closet wardrobe thing, and I don't even drink soda so i don't know what to do with it! but anyway, thats my "story of the week"

The Church is true, the spirit exists in everyone who will accept it, and Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove. Never doubt that.

Much Love,

Elder Hanks

Can I say, I'm no longer a greenie?

Aug 13 2018

Hello everyone!

to start off I would like to apologize for my email last week, I guess not all the pictures went through, so I'm just gonna send a separate email this week with pictures or something later. Also, the video called "character of Christ" I guess is privately owned by the MTC, so you can't watch it unless you come here, so that is a great reason why you should all serve missions! just for this video!!! and maybe for all the other blessings you get to! :)

this week was definitely better than last week! the korean is still coming along, I called myself a god once, so I learned to not make that mistake! but I'm definitely better at speaking now than I was last week! so at least there is some improvement!

A cool spiritual experience I had: so I room with some korean native elders, and one day at night he came up to elder gonzales and I and in broken english said he wasn't really feeling the spirit, and he didn't know why, but he really wanted to feel it! so in our broken korean and simple english told him the spirit wasn't some overwhelming feeling all the time, but just a good feeling in your heart. So I found a scripture, then found it in my korean BOM, (ether 4:11-12) and gave it to him to read. Then the next morning we sang a hymn with him, and he said he felt the spirit!! it was so cool! and now he always comes up to me and is like "Elda Hanks (korean accent) today I feel spirit, it was good. 100% obedience!" so it's amazing! we told him the spirit will come if he is always 100% obedient! 

Story time: just the other day we heard a rumor that if you eat 7 bananas in one day, you can die. but none of us believed it, and one elder really didn't believe it. So during dinner, Elder Guthrie had all of us get him a banana so that he could prove this rumor wrong. He ended up eating 11 bananas that day, and everyone around us was in awe! haha, so he became a legend for breaking the rumor and eating 11 bananas for dinner, it was weird, but I thought it was pretty funny. I heard one guy say that "you don't become a true man until you can at least eat 10 bananas in one sitting" so I guess the way to build some fame credits around here is just to eat a lot!

the MTC is great! the spirit is a constant witness of the work being done here! I've never felt this much constant joy before! The gospel is true, the Gift of Tongues is real and comes in many forms, and this is the one and only true church on this earth! 

I love you all!

Elder Hanks.

p.s. I never got any krispy Kreme, so if you feel so inclined to send a box, you'd bring honor to your family. :)  

(whoo hoo - Krispy Kreme doughnuts were lovingly sent the next day by the Knavel family!) 

The drop off and the first 4 days!

Aug 1 2018 -  THE DROP OFF !! 

Max's friend from school Elder Zach Brady going to the MTC the same day.

Aug 7 2018 

Hello everyone!!!!

So the MTC is pretty great! (just fyi the shift key on this keyboard needs like 50 pounds of pressure to work, so i apologize if i don't capitalize in this) so much has happened already, I don't even know how many meetings i've been in already! So i'll start with my companion! His name is Elder Gonzales and he is from the Philippines.

but the plane that all the philippino elders took to get here got delayed, so my first day i was companionless and had to just bounce between other companionships! that was not fun at all. It was like the moment i got here, the Lord was testing my faith, but i realized it was a great opportunity to realize the importance and effect of a companion.

but he's here now and all is well now. so in my room it is just elder gonzales and i, and these 2 naitive korean elders. so it is really hard to communicate between us all, so hopefully i can get my korean down quick!

Korean!!! attempting to learn korean has probably made these last few days the hardest days i've ever had i a while! i was told that chinese was supposed to be the hardest language i the world, but i'm pretty sure korean trumps it. however, i have been studying as hard as i can to somewhat be able to speak it. so now i can say prayers in korean!!

it's not super good, but it is kind of cool to be able to speak to heavenly father in a foreign language.

My first sunday was fast sunday, which was really good. we have our sacrament meeting in our classroom, so that's interesting! but we had a testimony meeting and it was soooo good!! there are like no barriers for the spirit here! we also had a devotional with Jenny Oaks Baker (Elder Oaks' daughter) and her very musically talented family. this place really is just always rich with the spirit!!

I have been able to see a lot of my friends here which has been super nice! one of my friends is Elder Piper, who was called to Seoul, Korea, and his room is literally right next door to mine! so that is just great! it was good to have someone I knew so close and in my zone. but my district and zone are great! we have zone volleyball games with the northern missions versus the southern missions of Korea to prove the better missions, and Busan will never lose.

Quick story: so right in front of the mtc entrance are these "tiny, shriveled, peppers" (quote by Olan Rogers) and as we were coming back from our volleyball games, one elder grabbed a handful and brought them in to our residence hall. Apparently all the korean missionaries eat the peppers at least once before they leave, so of course i had to experience it. Hottest thing i have ever had in a long while. i was crying for like 5 minutes, my mouth was burning for a solid 20 minutes, but it was great! haha, there was one elder who had 6 of them, and he was sitting on the ground, sweating, and just looked liked he was regretting every one he had ever eaten. So the MTC is treating us well!

If you are wanting to send me a letter, or a package with some sweet treats, my MTC mailing address is below. I saw one elder who had two boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so if i received something like that from one of you, i would keep you in my prayers. :)

Elder Max Hyrum Hanks

OCT02  KOR-BUS

2005 N 900 E Unit 161

Provo UT 84602

If you want to watch a life changing video!!! watch the MTC devotional video by Elder David A. Bednar called "Character of Christ". it is so good!! i promise if you watch it you will not regret it!

Sorry if this was too long, i'm a rookie at this right now. But everything is great! the church is true! don't stray from the path!

this may be one of the hardest things i've done in a while, but i've already been changed in ways i can't explain in only 6 days! i can't even imagine what 2 years will do for me!

I love you all!

Elder Hanks

Pics: (hopefully in order)

3. The Korean zone

4. my district

5. the tiny, shriveled, pepper from the sriracha nebula