KUNG FLU Virus quarantines the whole mission!

Feb 16 220

The more I serve out here, the more I am convinced that time changes in some way for missionaries. Cause somehow another transfer has come and gone and i'm just confused. I think that cause time doesn't really exist for God, He's just giving us a little taste of what that feels like

The weather's also whack too, it was like almost 70 degrees the other day, so we were just in white shirts and it was great. But then today it's a blizzard outside and it feels like 30 degrees. So there's just no standard here. 

But ANYWAY! It's transfers today! And last interviews president told me, my companion, and another missionary in our area that I would be training this transfer, so I was pretty sure that was gonna happen but that's not the case! SO it's kind of fun cause it just shows that God has another plan, and President Jeong received some updated revelation! SO now I’ll be serving here on the island with an Elder ..., yall can just call him Elder Lee. But he's from Seoul, cool guy, we'll have a fun time together. but this is also like my 6th Korean companion, and like my 15th or 16th companion, I’ve lost track now I gotta go back and count them up again. So the work is just crazy fun!

We meet a lot of Foreigners here too, one day we had an appointment with a member from Pakistan in the morning, then an Indian dude at night, and then these 2 people from Nepal. We probably meet just as many foreigners as we do Koreans here!

Last week we went to this lava tunnel thingy, and we found the largest known lava column in the world! And I knew ALL of you were super curious where the largest lava column was, so you're welcome now that you know! Now you can go tell ALL your other curious friends that are wondering about this.

But one cool miracle!! WE were just walking on the street (as we usually do) and just thought to get some inspiration for where to go. So stopped for a bit, crossed a street, then another street and ran into this guy who was going back to work. We found out he was a police officer and we was like "follow me to my work, I have something I want to ask you guys" and so I was like "ah sweet this guys wants to talk to us!" and I looked back at Elder Clark and his thought was that of (and he told me later) "well I got my foreigner card and certificate of ministering thing so we'll be okay" haha. He thought the officer was gonna like interrogate us kind of, haha. But turns out he was just curious about our church! SO we got his number and will try to get an appointment for this week. Heavenly Father is just so kind!

Last thing (then you guys can all go to whatever busy lives you have :) ) 

we were talking with a member about like seminary cause her daughter just graduated from Seminary. And she was saying how they would do it every morning before school and she was the only member in her school. AND then she asks me what seminary is like in Utah, haha. So I just explained that Utah is, well, a little different. Cause she was just blown away that there was a separate seminary building on school grounds for the over 2000 members at the high school. 

So just made me realize how special it is, and it's really so lucky to live in a place where the church is so strong and everyone helps others out. The gospel is so great. This same member was just talking about how members of the church just have a special appearance to them. They just have that happy glow, you know? SO just always remember who you are and that people are watching you! You are a witness of Christ! Remember to act like it :)

Love you all,

Elder hanks

                                                Sibling phone call 

Baptism phone call 

Feb 23 2020  - KUNG FLU VIRUS !! 

WOW! This was definitely one of the most interesting weeks I've seen in a while! So this will probably be worth reading for all ya 😁

I'll put the big stuff down at the bottom though so you have can go through everything else 😉

Pretty funny experience: So first off me and Elder Lee went Less-Active finding one day (we have this huge list of like 400 people who were members at some point of time, so we go find their house to see if they are still in existence). So we go to one house and an old lady answers and we asked if there was a Sister Kim there. She asks who we were, so we explained we were missionaries from Sister Kim's church. And the old lady says "ah, nope there is no one by that name here" BUT then right behind her was a little boy (clearly her grandson) and he says "but that's my mom's name..." 😂 and the grandma's like "Shhh! Sorry he doesn't know what he's talking about". 

So to confirm we were like "so you don't know anyone by this name?" And she was like "nope!" But the little boy was like "that's my mom's name, try going to our house!" 😂 so you just gotta love the innocence of little children, they always tell the truth 😂

Also if you guys remember from my last area, there was a father and his son who almost got baptized while I was there... well they got baptized yesterday!! So I was able to call in after the ordinance and congratulate them, it was so awesome! I called and he was just like "I got baptized today!!!" Ah it was so great!!

AND for the big news!!! 🥁🥁🥁 

So you all know that Kung Flu thing right? I believe the Learned are calling it Corona? So turns out some guy that had it walked into a church (not our church, some other worldly church) and like 40 other people got it. So now some like 150 people have gotten it in Korea, a few people have died I think. So it got pretty serious.

So we were having breakfast with a recent convert when we get the news that we were asked to go buy 2 weeks worth of food and then go stay inside at home!

So for the past 4 days all missionaries in Korea has been on house lock down! Which is just about as exciting as it sounds...

So that's exactly what we've been doing, we stay home all day, do extra studies, contact A LOT of people, and try not to go crazy 🙃 

Also all church meetings have been cancelled in Korea, so all the missionaries prepared bread and water in their homes, then we had like a conference call and 2 elders did the sacrament prayers and then there was a testimony meeting. 

I also called 2 foreign sisters here who needed the sacrament blessed and got to bless it over the phone with them.

We're not sure how long it will be like this, but to my knowledge, the church meetings are expected to be cancelled till about the middle of March! So I could see it being the same for us!

And so for all you reading this and thinking "ah I wish there was something I could do for them" I'll be glad to tell you that you can! 

First off you can always pray for us to stay safe ~ 

And if you feel so inclined, here's an address you can send a care package/letter too! 😁 

Elder Max Hanks

No. 201,   (Contact Max's Mom for the rest of the address! ) 

And we cant go outside today, so this preparation day I would love to talk to anyone who wants to have a conversation 😁

Anyways, love you all!

Elder Hanks

when you have to do church business but can stay in your pjs......

Just a sunday pic

Us buying our 2 weeks worth of food

appointment at the hair salon 

                                         

E Lee just trying to pass some time

                                                          

Moving due to a fire, met another Hanks, the kung fu virus and the break up

Feb 9 2020

This was was pretty much just a regular week, sorry there won't be too much fun stuff this time. So for all of you loyal ones, please read! for the rest of you, enjoy your day :)

But regardless of that, the gospel is just so amazing! Did you know that? It's just so amazing! 

Sorry I just had to put that in there. But one day this week we were just walking down a street and see an old guy pulling a tree in a cart behind him, so of course we were like "hey we'll help you pull you're tree!" haha, so we just pull it to this guys house, then he took us out for some holy mackerel after, so it was a pretty good tender mercy.

Then we got an appointment with this kid we were wanting to get closer with, so we decided to go get lunch together. So we go to this like pizza buffet, but turns out he didn't bring any money, so he was paid for. And we tried having a good conversation with him, but this kid sat on his phone THE WHOLE TIME... He was so distracted by his phone, we'd ask him a question and he'd like kind of motion like he was gonna answer, but then just keep looking at his phone. So we just gave up and enjoyed the lunch we bought and self committed to never let a phone take priority of a person. 

Yesterday in Sunday School, a brother was talking about Elder Bendar's talk about Cheetahs, remember that one? But he was telling us that sometimes the cheetahs will go find a tall tree, and they'll climb up to like 8-9 meters, which is like 25-30 feet I think, so they are like completely hidden up in the tree. then those antelope things come hang out around there, right? and they know to always be cautious, but it's like super hot outside, so sometimes they just really want to get a little shade for a bit. But (as you'd expect) right when they get under the tree, the cheetah jumps down on them.

So what's the lesson?? Sometimes the faith life is a little hard, sometimes you may say "the standards are too high" or something and want just a little rest in the shade. But we have to be careful, cause the moment that we justify that a little rest, or just letting our guard down for a bit, is the moment that Satan strikes.

But we aren't antelope, right? WE can all overcome the adversary, the fact that we all have bodies already gives us an advantage over him. Keep Calm and Carry On. :)

Elder hanks

Pictures:
All the members had to wear masks yesterday during church, not a huge fan of masks haha
                         

the island I’m on is just a big volcano, and it's super pretty. Totally just has the lonely mountain in the middle of the island

        




I’m probably just not cultured enough in the beer buying business to know that 'spirits' just means alcohol, but i just thought it was funny they were selling spirits here

           

just some service we did for one of our people

another good picture

Feb 2 2020

So this past week I had to break up with a girl... actually it was a woman. In fact a 38 year old woman who has a son!! SOOOOO for those of you who read (and remember) my email from last week, you'll remember reading something about a woman we met that could either become a miracle or not.... and well I’ll tell ya what happened. this will be the story of the week for yall (sorry it's abridged for sake of time) ;)

So this woman that we met last week at a restaurant, I’ll call her G......, would text us pretty frequently, but for just about no reason. So we were kind of like "hmm... I don't know about this one" so we hit her straight with "so why do you like us missionaries so much?" and at first she just says "well you are like my little brothers and are doing this hard work out in Korea, and so I wanted to be kind to you guys." which was okay BUT THEN she slides in this text saying something like "but is it bad if I like maybe I like Hanks?" (in like that kind of way, you know?) 

So like was like a "AHHH what the ramen am I supposed to do???" So the rest of the day was spent basically just breaking up with this woman, at least that's what it felt like. At one point she literally said "I thought it was fate."!!! Like seriously met the woman last week!!! Also said some stuff like "is it a crime for people to like people??" and ah man, long story short it's over. We're hoping she got the message clear. She brought her son to our english class later that week, and I just didn't say a word, haha. Oh man it was a rough day that day, but just glad it's hopefully over.

So that was like the climax of the week basically. We also moved houses today, which was good because our old house has been here since the ancients, so it's nice to get a better one. 

Church of the Week: The Pillar Church. Not really sure what it meant, it was also just like the 2nd floor of a building, and there were no pillars, so not sure where the name came from

We also got one of our people we started teaching out to church, but he's not super religious so when the sacrament came around and he took the water he was like "oh one more please!" haha, so we're still helping him to become more adjusted to religious stuff. Apparently the virus thing, which I'm now calling the Kung Flu (credit to Elder Zach Brady), is pretty bad, and being missionaries who talk to EVERYONE, it can be a little nervous, but no big problem. Just living the missionary life, which is the best life! 

Anyway I’ll just leave it here, but I hope you are all reading your Book of Mormons. OKAY?? Every day right??? if you're not... mmm 안 되는데 you can start today!! Okay? promise??

Love you All

Elder Hanks

pics:

instead of like graffiti on walls, they put all these sweet paintings on walls

 We went to a picture taking thing/ shop

Just some pictures : 
               

Jan 26 2020

Holy Bible! K first off it's raining cats and kimchi over here in Jeju, and I’m pretty sure someone released the 4 winds of the earth or something, cause coming over to the church today was a wild ride! 😂 And the umbrella I have has less coverage than AT&T in Korea, so of course I’m now typing this with soaked slacks :)

So anyways, how was your week? Over here in Asia it was what you all know as "Chinese New Year", so that's great if you are a korean with extended family. But if you're a missionary it's not the best because it means that basically NO ONE is outside for the whole weekend, so if we didn't have any appointments... well, yeah we had to get creative with the time that we had. But thankfully we had just a few appointments, and had some good food. 

ALSO there is a American sister in our branch, but she hadn't come out to church or anything recently, so went to visit briefly and apparently there is this scary virus thingy going around that came out of china, so all the English teachers were asked to stay in their homes and not go outside. So she was telling us about that, and said to kind of be cautious of chinese tourists we meet. And so we go outside to open our mouths right? and of course we meet like 3 chinese people in like an hour, so that's a good way to get a little worried. But we're actually not too worried, it's not super common and we're just slightly more protected than the average person ;)

Interesting experience: this could either turn into a cool miracle story, or not... ( I couldn't think of another word sorry) 

but we were eating with another team of elders at a restaurant and were sitting next to this lady (and we are not allowed to first proselyte to women due to foolish events in the past), but this lady started talking to us, so we started talking. And she seemed pretty interested, we gave her a Book of Mormon and my companion got her contact. But she then gave her contact to just me too, and has called us a few times just to talk since then. (but the thing is, she is like 39 and has a son, so we're not super worried about her liking us, but still kind of interesting). She called us once while we were studying at a Cafe, and just casually asked what cafe and stuff, and then asked if she could come and just talk with us as we studied. But we just told her probably not this time, we didn't have that much time anyway, and said let's grab a time for next week. She said okay, but then like 30 minutes later she walked into the Cafe with her son! So we were like "Uh..." but it was okay, all worked out. Just trying to refer her off to the sister missionaries now, haha.

Anyways!! Sorry that was pretty long, it's supposed to rain like ALL WEEK this week, so send a few prayers that we can just survive!!! 

Love you all,

Elder hanks

pics. 

We went on a cool little hike last week
                                       

this dog's name is Hanks (not a joke), and I like him :)



                            

a pic with some elders

more food

This wedding store didn't take the time to spell check before they made this big sign for their store

Jan 19 2020

Hello my beloved people! The grass is green, the sea is blue, and the church is true. Couldn't be a truer statement as far as I know.

We've had a pretty good week over here in korea, the work just keeps going on! Also quick shoutout to the big Sis who brought one of God's children into this blessed world, what a privilege that is!

We had our zone conference this past week, and we hiked up this "mountain" which was really just like a little hill if even, just took like 10 minutes to go up, but it had an awesome view of the ocean, so no complaints. Also listened to the good word preached by president Jeong, love that man. He talked about repentance, and I hope you all just remember how much of a gift repentance is in our lives. 

Funny experience: we had some elder stay at our houses one night for an early meeting the next day. And this elder calls someone on the phone, and they start talking in english. But this Korean guy says something about Donald Trump, and this elder didn’t hear him right and says "What about a donut shop?" haha, ah man it was so funny in the moment, I was like in tears crying in the next room I thought it was so funny, but probably just one of those you had to be there moments.

There was also a baptism in our zone yesterday, and it's a pretty simple but cool story. This members family came down to JeJu for a month to travel, and they had a son that is about 11 years old, but he didn’t go to church really and was never baptized. But they came down here and felt that he needed to be baptized down here. So while they are on vacation, he met with the missionaries, took the lessons, and got baptized yesterday. Isn’t that awesome??

I hope you all take the time each day to read your scriptures! The scriptures are so fun to read, there is just so much to learn! Come, follow me is so inspired, the church is just the best! Just take a few seconds and give a prayers of thanks to God for all that He has done for you 😁

Love you all, 

Elder Hanks

Pics

This was a fire at our apartment complex, we're now looking for a new apartment 🙃
                            

A sweet pic I took of our mission Mom, Sister Kim

All The elders in my zone 😁

Our JeJu Family picture
                       

The man himself, president Jeong

just hanging out on an island...

                                       

Jan 12 2020   (part 2) 

Hello again, I love you all so much I thought I’d give you a little dessert and share a good story with yall!

This happened in our mission recently, and it's a cool story. 

There was a companionship of missionaries walking the street, met a student, and the student started to talk to them. The student was busy or something and had to go, but wanted to meet with the missionaries. But didn’t have a phone number or anything, so said to the missionaries "let's meet here next week at (this) time" (just like the old days right?) and the missionaries were like "okay"! 

So next week comes and the student comes at the time they set, but no missionaries, waited a bit, and still no missionaries. But the student remember that the missionaries said they lived really close, and really wanted to meet them, So this student goes to a nearby apartment and starts knocking on doors LOOKING FOR THE MISSIONARIES!!! isn't that ironic?? Usually it's the missionaries knocking on doors looking for people, but this time it was the person looking for the missionaries! So by chance on like the 10th door, they find the missionaries!!! 

So the student's like "hey I’m the person you met last week, we planned to meet today at this time, do you remember?" and the missionaries were like "oh! Oh yeah!" 😂 

So this student went knocking on doors looking for the missionaries, by chance found them, and later got baptized. Pretty cool right? 

So there's a good story for ya all, hope you enjoy it ~~