Sept 22 2019
So yeah we gotta call during the week saying our zone conference
got suddenly switched to friday! (last friday) So for those of you who sent
stuff to help, sorry I wasn't able to use any of it, but thank you anyway,
haha.
But it was a pretty good zone conference! We did a pretty
bomb training about Enduring to the End. One of the great counsels we received
during it was to do all our studies outside the house! FOR ALL OTHER
MISSIONARIES OUT THERE(who maybe actually read this, haha) I would highly
suggest doing this! We've done it for just about 3 days now and we've already
seen tons of miracles! It was one of the few times I’ve actually had someone
else approach us and ask what we were doing! So thanks to our wonderful mission
leadership, we've been able to see some great miracles.
Downside is that this whole past weekend we had a typhoon here,
haha, so friday we got to do studies in a park, but then saturday and sunday we
had to do it in like a library and stuff. But we were still able to see God's
hand in our work.
One miracle: during the typhoon, we finished some work at
the church and had about 2 hours left that we planned to just do some street
contacting in the rain. But realizing that street contacting during a typhoon
might not be the best, but also with the advice we received to spend as much
time as we could out of our house, said a little prayer and decided to go to a
little bakery and do some contacting there. So we changed our course, and on
the way there were able to give a Book of Mormon to someone in the pouring
rain! Got to the bakery and found there was no place to sit, so we decided to
go to another nearby cafe thing and on the way there we were able to give
another Book of Mormon in the pouring rain! We got to the cafe, sit down, and a
friend that we are trying to meet with was there and came up and talked to us
for a bit! So that was a pretty cool miracle.
Funny experience: There is a member in our ward who knows
how to use "sweet mercy" pretty well, and I think it's pretty funny.
But then my comp, Elder Han, was really curious what it meant. And I didn't
know how to explain it, and the member didn't know how to explain it in korean
either, so my comp is just really interested in the phrase "sweet
mercy" now, haha.
Last little food for though: So here's something some of you
may like, some of you may not like it cause it may hit you where it hurts
(sorry) but recently I’ve been studying about Humility and Pride in the Book of
Mormon. And there is SOO much that you can learn about this, but I want to
share one simple thing I found interesting about pride that could be helpful to
everyone. IN the Book of Mormon, one of the common things that comes with pride
is "having their hearts set upon the things of the World". Often when
someone becomes prideful, they begin to "wear costly apparel" and
"their hearts [become] set upon... their ringlets, and their bracelets,
and their ornaments..., and all their precious things".
So what's the take away? Please don't be too worried about
what the world thinks of you. Don't be too worried about how you look. Yes of
course we are supposed to have a "neat appearance" but that doesn't
mean we need to put so much focus on the things of the world. If you by chance
consider that you spend too much time worried about your clothes, all your
possessions, how people think about you, please just take a moment to kneel,
humble yourself and thank God for all the REALLY important stuff in your life.
Sorry that was long :)
Love you all,
Elder Hanks
Pics: (don't know what order)
we played some traditional korean games at zone conf
Grabbed a meal appointment with a recent convert!
the pic we took at zone conference
a pizza pic
Elder Han :)
blurry pic during the typhoon
Sept 15 2019
Yeah it was the Korean Thanksgiving this past week!! In the
mission though, we have new guidelines for us to only have meals when we have
interested people with us, but because all of our friends were also busy with
their families during the week, we just had to spend our thanksgiving at
our house, haha. Also because it was the holiday, there weren't that many
people outside either.
So what did we do?? Cookies. :)
Yeah so we just made a bunch of cookies, and then we plan on
visiting a bunch of people this week and giving them the cookies with an
uplifting message! So hopefully it'll work out! Some of the cookies turned out
like something you could find at a bakery, and others turned out flatter than
the earth ;) so I don't know what happened there, haha
Some quick good stuff
- I maybe ate too many of the
cookies we made
- we got to help some other
missionaries finally move into a house in the area they have served in for
over a transfer
- We called this guy, and ended
up talking to him for over an hour and teaching like all the restoration
and half the Plan of Salvation
- A guy called us and invited
us to play soccer, so we got to play some soccer!
- we were able to get a meal
appointment with member and friend for this week!
Need some help from whoever wants to give it! :)
So I have a zone conference coming up soon,
and we are supposed to provide a training about "Enduring to the End"
which (in case you didn't know) is actually pretty difficult to find some good
ways to teach about or use as a training. SO if any of you have ideas/ fun ways
to teach enduring to the end/ cool stories about that/ any cool visual aid
you've seen, please send them this way!
much love,
Elder hanks
not that many pics, sorry
got to play soccer
comp playing ping pong with our friend
what we look like proselyting in the rain, quite fun :)
Sept 8 2019
onion-hasaeyo
Well as you all know, I was planning to get a son this week,
but it turned out to be an adoption! He's a Korean!! So it was pretty funny
cause the last 2 weeks I was planning for what I would do when I get a new
trainee who is new to Korea and can't speak the language, so imagine my
surprise when my trainee turned out to be a korean! Like half my plan just went
out the window, haha. But it's all good! We've been working hard together and
should have a pretty good week!
But this past week was basically a week of traveling for me.
because I was training, I had to leave to Busan (our mission headquarters)
early Monday morning and we had our training meeting for the trainers, then we
met our trainees on wednesday and came back to our area. But then because we
had a mission leadership meeting on friday, I had to go back to Busan (which by
the way is like almost a 5 hour trip) and go back on friday. So spent the
majority of my week out in Busan, but it was good! We learned a lot and
prepared more for how we can work and do better missionary work.
My comp. is Elder Han, just from up by Seoul. He's into like
computer programming, mathematics and science and stuff. So that's pretty cool,
he seems to be pretty smart. He's kind of quiet but he has a great testimony about the gospel, and that is what is really
important. So we should be able to see some miracles during these next 2
transfers!
The mission is good, so rewarding! Heavenly Father is just
so willing to bless us openly! We're trying hard to help the people we are
meeting, and trying hard to get some more member missionary work going. So if
you are looking for something to pray for, please pray for Elder Hanks out here
in Korea! All prayers are welcome and needed!
Much Love,
Elder Hanks
Pics:
Just some pics with the comp.
the one of the bus is just because I spent like 15 or so
hours in these kind of buses, haha
and just one of good old Korea :)
