Transfers! ahhhh!

Dec 16 2018

Well what a week! I'll just get to the important stuff right away then! So last week we went to Krispy Kreme, and I’m just very grateful for the good places in the world. :) 

Also we had our transfers today!! This past transfer was only 5 weeks actually, so I had a 11 week training instead of 12 weeks, so that was fun! It has been so fun to be trained by Elder Gailey! which leads me into our transfers, So Elder Gailey will be leaving me and going to a far off land called 사천 and I will be staying in 금정 (Geum Jeong). And then my new companions are Elder 박인수 (Elder Park in English) and Elder Birrell! So I’m gonna be in a threesome here with a korean! So that'll be quite the adventure! And it'll be fun trying to work with 3 elders in one place now! So there is the transfer news! Also 박인수 장노님 (Elder Park) will be the district leader, and apparently the district leader's companion(s) is called the district fairy, haha, so I get to be the district fairy for another transfer! 👼 Stay tuned next week for more about who my companions are!

We also had a choir performance yesterday, it was super good! But it was super far, so we had to take a train back home, that took a while and was pretty late unfortunately, but there weren't enough seats on the train, so we were in like the very back of the train where like the back door is, and it was super tempting to reenact the Polar Express scene, but there wasn't any snow, and there were no lights, and I totally forgot the song, so I couldn't, but it would have been cool. :)

This past week we met with an Elderly man named R..... R..... has been attending our English class for about 3 years straight (and he's the one who called me gorgeous last week, haha) but he talked about how he wants to join our church!! but because of culture and that his whole family attends another church, he said it was impossible for him to join... So it was super sad, we had a meal with him, but he is like set that it's impossible, so that was really too bad to see that he thinks that, we're still trying though!

Interesting Church of the week: So I couldn't find a strange church name, but there is a하나님의 교회 (God's Church) where they baptize naked, and women hold the priesthood, and they keep the whole law of Moses! Which means they also can't eat pig unfortunately! So just an interesting church! Still just very glad to be part of Christ's restored church!

This week is #LightYourFamily, so looks for ways to light your family this week!!

I love you all and hope you are all excited for this Christmas Season! Cause it's great!

Elder Hanks

Pictures:

Just giving an elephant a Christmas hug, everyone needs one!

The one and only Elder Gailey

Elder Gailey wearing his traditional Korean attire

Blurry pic of a sweet foggy night the other night :)

2 week catch up - 4 months & I'm gorgeous!

Dec 9 2018 

Haha, Hello everyone! hope you are finding ways to #LightTheWorld!

              

So it was another week or missionary work!! But last week we got to go to 통도사 (Tong Do Sa) Which I guess is the largest buddhist temple in Korea! So hey that's pretty neat! We were getting some like little souvenirs and this like Monk comes and asks us who we were. And this guy looks exactly like how you might picture an asian monk, he had this grey robe and handmade bag, and he was bald, with some circular wise man glasses, and then your classic wise asian man mustache, haha, so it was cool. He was confused why there were Christian missionaries buying Buddhist stuff though, haha, but I guess because we're foreigners thats why, haha.

It's also getting pretty cold, I think it dropped down to like -5 C (23 degrees) the other day, but then you add the humidity, so it was pretty cold. And for some reason our boiler would get too hot and stop working, so we have to keep the windows open in that room to keep it cool, and it's like a walk in fridge now, it's so cold you can see your breath when you walk it, haha, so it's an adventure I guess!

morning proselyting!

Church name of the week: We found the Samsung Church!! I'm sure it might actually mean something else, but it was spelled the exact same as the Samsung company, so it was just funny to me, haha. There are definitely a lot of churches here, with also some super crazy beliefs, like one church says that you have to take this like 100 question test about the book of revelations, pass it with 100% and memorize a bunch of stuff in order to achieve salvation... So I'm just glad I'm in Christ's true church, haha, I'm just not much of a test taker!

 

Something fun that happened was during our english class again, always something fun in that class really. I was wearing just a floral tie, and one of them came and sat down next to me and was like "Oh Elder Hanks, you look gorgeous today!" haha, so I can check getting gorgeous called by a 75 year old Korean man off my bucket list! I love them! And then all they were fascinated by the "Floral Friday" trend in the US, haha. So english class can be very entertaining sometimes. 

We also had another choir performance yesterday, and there was such a great spirit there!! You should all go watch the Light the World videos and other christmas videos the church produces, cause they are awesome! And then go sing a bunch of Christmas songs cause those are also just like the best songs ever! 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

hot chocolate is good

and The Church is true :)

Much love for you all!

Elder Hanks

Dec 2 2018

Yeah so it's been 4 months officially! So woot woot! haha, feel likes it's been a lot longer though. So let's go through what happened this past week.

                

This morning we went to Korea's largest public Bath House!! haha, so that was an adventure! We also happened to run into the Office Assistants, the Assistants to the president, and also President Jeong there!! Haha, so that was an unexpected surprise! But what an experience, the missionaries here like to relate it to repentance, cause you just come out feeling so clean! haha, totally true! And then President took us out to get breakfast after, so it was conveniently timed, but I'm sure the Lord had a helping hand in it :)

             

out to breakfast after the bath house! 

We also got to decorate our church for Christmas! Which is always good, cause I mean it's Christmas!! We also had our Mission Choir Christmas Performance! It was so great, it was hard cause we had to memorize a bunch of songs in Korean, but it was well worth it, and there was such a great spirit there! So awesome, and a few people told me they could particularly hear my voice, haha, so besides that it was just perfect! :)

             

Funny(ish) story: So i'm sure not many of you will remember, but a few weeks ago a random old guy, named G........, let us into his house just suddenly on the street and treated us to Tea and Bananas. So the other day we went back to invite him and his wife, E...., to our Christmas concert! I wasn't wearing a scarf or hat or anything, just my suit, just cause I didn't think it was super cold, but Elder Gailey was, so I think she thought I didn't have like winter clothes or stuff. When they came to the concert, she brought me a bag with a big scarf and a hat she had knit together!!! You guys- it was so awesome and it was so nice of her, there are just some people in Korea that are just so amazing! 

Fun Fact about Koreans: So all Koreans are required to take english in school, so they all look for ways to improve their English. So we found out that something many teachers and academies do, is show the movie: The Devil Wears Prada to their students, haha. They watch it because I guess Anne Hathaway pronounces English very well or something, but they just always choose to watch that movie, so the majority of Koreans have seen that movie, haha, it was just funny to me.

I love you all!! Remember what Christmas it really about! It's CHRISTmas, not give-gifts-and-eat-lots-mas ;) but that's still a good part of Christmas. Remember to Light The World!! #새상을비추라 

Much Love,

Elder Hanks