Dec 30 2018
Well it's felt like a really long week! But it was still
great! To start off I finally played a sport!!! WOOO! We got a bunch of Elders
together and played soccer, and some random Korean students were there, so we
just played with them too! It was so great!
And it was also Christmas! So that was exciting! We had a
zone conference and all the missionaries just did little plays and performance
things, so it was pretty fun, we also had some Turkey (from Costco of course)
and our companionship got all the leftovers! so we've been eating well this past
week!
A Quick Christmas Miracle: So on Christmas we went back to
the church to pick up the leftover food that night, and as we were coming out
of the church, there was a kid walking by, and we said hello and talked to him,
then he asked us how he could come to this church!! So we were like whoa! It
was a Christmas Miracle! :)
Cool Experience: We got to bring back one of the lost sheep
back into the fold! So there was an inactive sister who reached out to us to
help her translate stuff into English, so we helped, then just continued
helping her with English questions. But we went and visited a while back, and
just talked and found out she was just having a hard time, she's been inactive
for about 5 years, and was about to get a divorce! But we gave her a book of
mormon and just said whatever the spirit said to say, and we left! Later we
helped her again with some presentation in English, and found out that the day
after we met with her, she met with her husband and talked through it, they
aren't getting a divorce now, and now she's gonna come back to church and is
trying to help us help her son get reactive!! So it was a super awesome
experience!
A New Hope: We have been meeting another guy for a while
because he had English interests, but we also teach him gospel when we meet as
part of our English teaching program, and he actually started to improve, and
now he accepted an invitation of baptism! So we are really hoping and praying
for him, he said he isn't super sure he is ready to give up coffee and tea, so
we're gonna keep trying, if you want to pray for him, all prayers are welcome
and needed! His name is O......
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| Christmas even chicken dinner with Elder Birrell and Elder Park |
Church Name of the Week: We saw this church and I didn't
know how to translate it, so I asked Elder Park, and he said he thinks it meant
the "Sweet Rain Church". So I don't know how it started, but I'm sure
one of them probably happened to watch the Mormon Message "A Shower of
Heavenly Blessings" by Elder Uchtdorf
Funny Story: So in a Christmas package, I got some chocolate
chip muffin mix! (Shoutout to Grandma and Grandpa Beckman) and we were all very
excited about that. So I put them in our little oven, and we went out to do
some quick proselyting! Unfortunately they were in there a little too long,
cause out came what looked like just some chocolate muffins... but we ate them
anyway!
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| miniature penguin bowling I got for christmas |
It was a great week! This gospel is so true! I hope you all
had just an awesome christmas and hope you all have a great new year!
Much Love,
Elder Hanks
Christmas phone call via FB video calling - on our Sunday Dec 23 night, which was Max's 24th in the morning.
Dec 24 2018
메리 크리스마스!!! (Merry Christmas)
Wow being in a trio is so weird!! there was some adjusting that had to be done, but it's super fun! It makes street contacting really different, cause we can't really all go up to one guy and like surround him and talk to him about of message of happiness, cause that would be really weird, so it's just an adventure, it'll make this next transfer a lot of fun!
Quick companion highlight: Elder Park (박인수) is a Korean from the Seoul South area, and he is super fun! This is actually his last transfer too. And he is super fluent in English, like everyone is always taken back at how good he is an English, and his birthday was this past week! So we had a birthday cake!
Elder Birrell: He's from Holliday, Utah, and he's a great companion! He's always happy and talks to everyone, so that's super helpful. He's been out a little over a year, and this companionship is just really fun!
So we decorated our house for christmas, cause we didn't really have anything set up, so I'll attach a picture later of what we were able to pull off. Christmas season is just super fun, and we all like christmas (as every person in the world should) so hopefully we'll have a fun christmas!
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| some of our christmas decorations |
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| christmas party fun |
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| Finding Elder Gonzales- my MTC companion |
Christmas Choir performance
We had our last choir performance yesterday, and Elder 최
(choi) who's the President of the Asia North Area was in the area and he came!
So that was super cool, and there was just such a great spirit there! And it
was funny cause the theme of the choir tour was "He is the Gift" but in the program was accidentally put "Hi is the Gift" so that was a
little funny, but there really is such an amazing spirit about Christmas! So it
was a great week!
I can't wait to hear about all your Christmas's this week!
Much Love,
Elder Hanks