Well this is the last email coming from the MTC! Yes, I'm
still here, many people have asked me how korea is, and I wish I could tell ya!
so I'll let you know in 2 weeks! We can't email next week because that's when
we are traveling.
But what a week! ah man I love the MTC! But we had Elder
Anderson come and speak at the MTC, and he just brought the sweetest spirit
into the room! it was so great, he went and shook hands with a lot of the
international missionaries, and for some of them it was their first time seeing
an apostle in person, so there were many people who were just stunned and in
tears, it really was just such a sweet spirit.
Hosting Highlight: We got to host this past week, about time
we were able to. All it really is though is just greeting the new missionaries
as they get dropped off from their families, and them getting them settled and
showing them to their classes to get started, but it was still great!
Singing Second: so a few elders in our transfer (the 2
districts who came and are leaving together) and I have just been practicing a
song in case we wanted to perform it sometime. So the song was a medley of
"if you could hie to kolob and come thou fount of every blessing" and
we just decided to send it and audition the song. So they liked us, and we
ended up singing yesterday for all the departing missionaries, a few hundred of
them. and it's funny because there were 5 of us, and I was the only one singing
the bass part, which meant I had a few solo parts, and I can't sing! so I don't
even know why I was there! haha, but it ended up being so great, we all
recognized the spirit there, and we were super grateful we did it.
Miracle Moment: So if you haven't seen on the news or
anything that informs you of current events, I think it's over by Spanish Fork,
there have been some major fires on the mountain, like big fires. The smoke
would come into provo and it just looked like a really foggy morning, for
multiple mornings. So it was a big fire, and the homes near the fire were at
risk of catching fire (BTW we just heard all this in a devotional, I haven't
been watching KSL or anything). So the firefighters got together and made a
plan to stand at one place, fight the fire, and if it got too close and they
couldn't stop it, then they would just run for safety. But here's the miracle:
the local stake president asked for the members of the stake to pray that the
winds would cease so it would be easier to put the fire out, and their homes
would not be at risk. When the firefighters got there, they found that not only
had the wind changed, but that it was now blowing in a way that was holding the
fires back! there's the first miracle. Here's the second, now that the fires
were starting to be held back and reducing, the land was dry, and still at
risk. So the stake president again asked for the members to pray that there
would be rain to come down. So yesterday, when there was 0% chance of rain, one
of the MTC Relief Society presidency received a message that it was just
pouring rain over there, with 0% chance! So if that's not a miracle to protect
the town that was almost certainly at risk of being destroyed, I don't know
what is! Just a little fun miracle story :)
(These guys stood here like this for like 20 minutes for some reason!)
Fun Fact: We learned that in the story of David and
Goliath, Goliath would have been somewhere between 9'9" and 10'9", so
a pretty tall dude you could say. And David would have still been in his youth
as we know, and as President Hinckley once suggested, maybe about the age of a
12 year old. So you if you want to see the difference, go find a deacon and put
him underneath a basketball hoop or something, and it's incredible to see how
by "small and simple things, great things are brought to pass"
Anyway, won't be able to email for a while, so I love you
all! If you want to send anything while I have one more week here, it is always
appreciated!
Shoutout to Grandma B. for sending some Sasparilla! :) And then a bee feel into my drink so we are trying to save my drink!
Much Love,
Elder Hanks