Greetings from Kaysville Utah !

Probably one of the first emails you guys have gotten about a missionaries week at home, right?? 

So finished my 3rd week of quarantine here, and HOPEFULLY just one more to go! 

So the week was full of studying, yard work and whatever else could be found! My dad had a list of things he was planning to do this spring, so I think the Lord had some fun with the timing. Cause we've been able to get a lot of it done, and it was also pretty helpful for me to pass the time a little easier!

Also turned 20 this past week at home! Never thought I'd be spending my 2nd birthday as a missionary back at home, nowadays you can never expect anything. Sad thing though, is that because age is a little different in Korea, I had totally been 21 since my last birthday, but then I had to come home and lose a year, RIP. But it was nice to spend it back home.

Just last night my mom checked my temp (to make sure I don't have The Kung Flu you know?) and she was like "you feel a little hot..." And I was thinking 'oh shoot, I could totally have Corona!' and she was like "do you have a headache or sore throat?" because I wasn't coughing either,  and I didn't at the time, but then just a little bit later I thought I started to feel it. And so last night I was sitting there in bed like worrying I was gonna wake up with Corona. So my mind was racing with all the worst case scenarios of not finishing the mission, or the whole ward getting infected or something. So I was pretty convinced I could have had the Kung Flu. But then woke up and all is well, no worries everyone. I'm not infected (as far as I know) and I'll be headin out to OKC next Monday hopefully!

Prayers go out to all the other missionaries serving in the world who are each dealing with their own struggles because of this thing. Please keep all the missionaries in your prayers!

Much love,

Elder Hanks

                                  1500 piece puzzle... Mom 1,100 pieces,  Elder Hanks 400 pcs

              Reconnecting with a Conference call with anyone available from/ in the Busan mission

                                        More yard work ... just glad to be doing something!

Birthday celebrations ! 

Things to pass the time.... after all the personal, companionship, language and Preach My Gospel studies are done...... 

                              

Never thought I'd be writing this from home

So I'm sure many or all of you know now, but I'm now home now! Because of that Kung Flu guy, all the foreign missionaries have been sent home for a 2 week Quarantine. So here I am writing this email from my home computer, kind of crazy. 

But let's go through the week, right?? We actually got to go outside last week during the quarantine!! And it was just to throw away trash so our apartment didn't reek, haha. But somehow I have been able to make a friend with a 65 year old guy who calls himself "stone" and he doesn't even live on Jeju, he lives in Busan. But we would always call and talk for like 20-30 minutes about random stuff, haha. He was a fun guy. 

I continued to share Olan Rogers/Brian Regan stories with the other Elders in my zone, and they were very appreciative of that. Said that was one of the bets parts of the day.

AND then there was that one day! We were studying in the morning when we got a call saying to pack all our bags as soon as we could, and we would be going to Busan that day. Then we got a text just a few minutes later telling us that all Foreigner missionaries would be returning home within the next 3 days... So that was one of the weirdest moments of my life. But we just hard to start getting everything together, we had to get rid of all our food, and try to leave the area in a way that would make it easy for the next people to pick it up when they came.

So that was last friday, and we spent Saturday at the mission headquarters. There were just about 55 missionaries that left at this time. So we just watched as groups of missionaries got sent off to the airport, super sad. We still had to eat though, and an Elder and I got put in charge of cooking for what was first just 13 Elders, but ended up being about 30 or so missionaries, haha. So we spent 3 hours cooking a bunch of random food for all these missionaries. 

Then Sunday came around, my group was the last group to leave. so we got to watch everyone else leave, then we left sunday morning. Before we left, we got to have a little testimony meeting with President, the other returning missionaries, and all the Koreans (through a phone call). It was super sad, I may have cried, can't quite remember. But we had about 20 hours of traveling, and now i'm back home! 

I would have never thought something like this could happen, but God's hand is in this. He is guiding and taking care of all of us missionaries. 

Thankfully I don't have to be released, so will just be serving here until my 2 weeks is up and I go out to serve in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma mission.

I loved Korea so much. I can never forget that wonderful country. I learned countless wonderful life lessons there.

                              

Love you all,

Elder Hanks

The last group out.....




                  The last group out....
                

Isolation Nation over here...!

March 1 2020

It had a good rhyme to it, so that's the title, haha

First off, I have quite a lot of free time today, so don't be afraid to send an email or facebook message to me sometime 🤣

So!!! Yeah we are now going on the 11th day of quarantine, which is just about as exciting as it sounds!! The days consist of much studying, eating, exercising, and more studying. Basically, anything we can find to keep us busy and doing something while following missionary standards. If you have any fun ideas please send them this way!

So the virus in Korea has been spreading pretty quickly, I'll provide some stats for you guys of the day and how many people were infected from when we started the quarantine. 

Feb. 21st: 204 infected 1 death 

22nd: 434 infected, 2 deaths

23rd: 602 infected, 5 deaths

24th: 833 infected, 7 deaths

25th: 977 infected, 11 deaths

26th: 1,261infected 12 deaths 

27th: 1,766 infected, 13 deaths

28th: 2,337 infected, 16 deaths

29th: 3,150 infected, 17 deaths 

March 1st: 3,736 infected 20 deaths

Today: 4,212 infected, 22 deaths

So needless to say it's spread pretty fast, we fasted with all the members in Korea for the virus to go down and for those who are suffering. 

I watched the Best 2 years last week, that was pretty good, we call members over the phone and teach them. Called these 2 kids and did like an "english class" over the phone with them. So we stay busy with some stuff.

The most nerve racking part of the week was when we got a text from the assistants saying there would be a special mission-wide phone call and everyone was expected to attend. And so of course all thoughts go to "ah no, we're going home..." and president Jeong starts the call by saying "We got a call from Salt Lake City this morning..." and I just hit the floor devastated 😂 but turns out only those who had 3 months left on their mission and a few other missionaries went home. So we were good

But now at this point, I'm pretty ready to just go somewhere, ANYWHERE, just so I can do some actual missionary work. Being trapped inside all day is not my idea of being a missionary.

But on the bright side, if any of you know the man Olan Rogers, you might know I enjoy him and his stories a bit. And this past week I've been able to bless the lives of some other missionaries with some laughter through his stories. 

Lastly (sorry I don't know how this email got so long!) Even know we are trapped inside all day with little do to and going half crazy, God is with us in this apartment. As long as I am staying obedient, all will be okay. God is helping me through this, and I love Him for it!

Love you all,Elder Hanks