Hey Y'all!

I am still here in Collins Hill the best area in the whole mission! we got two new people Sister Kafu, who is from Sacramento California and Elder Fowers who is from good ole hyrum Utah. they are both super fun and such good missionaries and we have seen many miracles this week! 

first off! HEATHER IS BAPTIZED!! i can't believe she is baptized! it was an awesome time and her son Tristan made it to the service which is also another miracle i will get to! she was baptized on Saturday and i got to give the talk on baptism! it went well. at least a bunch of people told me they liked it but maybe they said that because i told everyone that this would be the first official talk that i have given that you guys didn't proof read like ten times before telling me i could give it. :P they all thought that was pretty funny. after we went to their house to "celebrate" haha we had an all southern dinner. We had ham, collard greens, black-eyed beans, potato salad and deviled eggs. it was all really delicious! then i helped Heather and Tristan clean up in the kitchen while jimmy, Sister Arbon, sister Kelly and sister kafu went to the living and talked. I love helping people out in the kitchen and they appreciate it to. then we played monopoly for a little while. no one seemed to get into it and so put it away and had apple cobbler which was amazing!! then we were all super tired. they couldn't figure out what was wrong with us because we were super quiet and looked exhausted! we told them after a spiritual high we get that way so later they took us home and we all passed out! but it was an awesome day! 

Now about Tristan! Tristan is their son, he's seventeen years old but he turns eighteen in November. at first he wasn't interested in all about religion and i had tried to talk to him about it but he would always shrug it off or just ignore me, so i put my testimony in a book of Mormon and heather put it on his bed for me. we were over there on Tuesday night with the elders for heather's interview  the next day we asked if we could come over and teach a lesson he said yes. so we went and taught him the first lesson. this was a miracle! we could not believe that he is reading the Book of Mormon and Praying. he even came to the baptism on Saturday and is trying to come to church on Sunday!! its crazy!! 

Another miracle that happened this week was we were weekly planning, Sister Arbon felt like we really needed to go see this guy. He had knee surgery a couple months ago and they hadn't been back to see him sense. so we planned him in for the week. well! we were checking out mail and this guy came limping up to his mailbox which is near ours. Sister Arbon said hey nice yellow shorts he said thanks we then continued to talk to him, he told us about his knee surgery and about how he use to meet with missionaries. It was him! it was amazing! so we set up an earlier appointment! 

We were in Coordination meeting and the Elders were talking about who they were visiting, they started talking about this guy named Mike. it was hilarious because we had planned in to go see him that week and they tracted into him! some of these people just really need to be taught! 

After we taught Tristan's lesson we were walking back to our bikes when Sister Arbon sees this guy sitting on his porch shirt less smoking and she decides to go talk to him. Turns out he was baptized three years ago but he got super busy and has fallen back into old habits so we invited him to come back to church. it was super cool! 

We also got yelled at by this lady who told us this is a no scoliciting area. we told her were weren't selling anything we were just talking to people. she didn't like that response and told us to leave her a long. it was funny. we also ran into a guy who opened the door and said you ladies never learn! you never learn! shaking his head at us. we were so confused so i asked what we never learned. he said he was an atheist and he told us if we wanted to come in he'll convert us. it was so funny! 

but yeah! that about sums up my week! oh yeah! it was halloween! we were suppose to be in at 6 but then we got special permission to be at jimmy's house till 8. so we got to hang out there. then i went to bed early. it was awesome! :) 

p.s. our picture is on Facebook! we are famous! if you go to the LDS missionaries page you can find me and my district on there in our Halloween get up! 

Spiritual thought of the week has to go along with fast sundays! 

Sister sorenson in my ward got up and said "you can have a slow sunday, where all you think about it how hungry you are or how you have sit in church all day! Or you can have a fast sunday, you can have an amazing spiritual day and touch someone elses lives" 

have an amazing week! 

Love Sister Hanks

 - stone mountain selfie!

 - we decorated cookies on halloween oh and cupcakes!

 - This is the Parker Family from left to right Tristan, Jimmy, Heather, Sister Arbon and Me

 - Heather and I

 - Elder Lee got a Bunch of fake mustaches and we put them on after district meeting it was hilarious!

Hey Y'all

This week has been amazing! we have seen so many miracles and i don't even know where to start. :) 

   First off! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BESTEST FRIEND!! i can't believe she turns 18 today! i love you mucho kylee and i hope you have an awesome birthday! everyone give her a hug for me! 

     On Wednesday of last week Sister Arbon and I got to go to a New missionary follow-up meeting. that was really good. it was really fun to see my MTC family. They are all still here and doing good :) we also got to go to dinner with Sister Todd that night to a place called Panera!  its Mexican food and i ordered the spiciest thing on accident! i downed like 5 cups of water while eating it. plus she got us two appetizers and we each got our own dessert! i got fried ice cream! which i love! we finally got to meet with this family that Sister Arbon tracted into. they were super nice and had ton of questions but we think they are going to be baptized they really like our religion so far. 

   Thursday was soo busy! but it was a ton of fun! we went tracting that morning and knocked on this lady's door. she loves Christ and seemed pretty interested. she said that the Jehovah's Witnesses had come by before and were teaching her but they couldn't answer her question. her question is How did all the Cultures start? you should help me out! because i really can't find an answer! we are going back in two weeks. so let me know! After we talked to her for a while the sisters picked us up to go serve Ice cream since we had p-day on tuesday we switched it to thursday. there is this old man who comes in everyweek and loves to just talk to us about life. this week he gave us dating advice! he told us to watch their dates because thats how they are going to act and that's how they are going to look! he also said watch how they act around/to waitresses if they get snappy with them then they are going to get snappy with you. he is a hilarious guy and we love talking to him. He likes refering to himself as the jerk in the ice cream shop. haha then we went to the kelleys to make popcorn and cookies to go BOOing. :) it was a ton of fun! they fed us dinner which was Chicken and green beans and homemade Ceasar dressing salad. Guess what the sauce had in it?? anchovies!! it was delicious but so weird!! sister castleton said "this has a little bit of a fishie taste." then they continued to explain what was in it. yep its official i have eaten anchovies. i can't get over it either. after dinner we went out and BOO'd people it was a ton of fun. we have yet to be BOO'd but hopefully it starts spreading here soon. it might just be a utah thing though.. oh well it was fun! 

   Friday we did more tracting and tracted into a family who use to go to church all the time but never joined. her ex-husband was mormon and they love the church! they want to come back! heres the problem they are sooo busy! we are never going to have time to teach them! its crazy! so hopefully soon they will be able to find sometime for us to come over. :) We had Pizza night at the Simpsons. She is pregnant and its quite exciting for all of us. :) she is due in march! she's hilarious! she was telling us all about pregnancy and what to expect. After Dinner we went over to heather and Jimmy's house i don't remember exactly what we did. but we did something important. :P oh! wait! no we didn't have time! we didn't go over there. they came to us. we had run out of time to go over there so we told them we needed to take a rain check and they said no they would come to us. we sat outside and got to know their oldest who is getting engaged sometime here soon. she is 18 and is on her second semester of college. its crazy but its nice to be around someone who is close to my age. :) 

     Saturday we were walking down the road to head out to tracting, when we hear BOOO MORMONS! i was freaking out cuz its kinda ridiculous what we get yelled at us. but we turned and saw jimmy pulled over across the street. that man can find us any where. they told us to get powerade from the house because we need to stay hydrated. :) so we did. we got to talk to his son, who is a senior and high school. he is hilarious! so much fun to talk to. we asked him for referrals and he didn't have any. so we left him so he could go to work then we went tracting. that night was the Fall Festival for the ward! all the missionaries dressed up as wizards from harry potter it was awesome. Sister Arbon and I got to judge all the desserts! they were all soo good! we had a ton of fun and then the parkers Found us again. :P so we went to their house and jammed out to Gopel songs and get this!! i will replay the conversations we had! 

Jimmy: so heather has decided that she's joining the church!

All of the sisters jaws drop 

heather: OH yeah! when can i get baptized guys?

I HAVE ANOTHER BAPTISM!!! WOOT!! we celebrated!! plus jimmy met with a counsler on sunday so he is on his way! two more baptisms!! its soo exciting!! God really does answer prayers!! and Miracles happen every day!! on sunday they came to church and we set up a date! heather is going to be baptized November 1! its so exciting! i get to give a talk on baptism!! woot! :) 

My Favorite quote this week that has helped me out is : Find the motivation or desire, search it out and let it roar! - Elder Cleaverly

Sometimes its super hard to be motivated. in the real world or on a mission. we just need to figure out what motivates us and continue down that path! i challenge you to find something that you need to be motivated for, whether its getting up in the morning or its going to the gym! maybe its not eating snacks or candy! figure something out to help you be motivated to do it! and always remember you can pray! God can help you with anything! and everything! I love you all! 

Lots of Love and Prayers! 

Sister Hanks

- This is my District Leader Elder Lee (the blonde) and his Companion Elder Roy (the ginger) 

- Me, Elder Roy, Elder Lee and Sister Castleton. she didn't want to be a wizard she wanted to be a princess instead. :) 

- This was a sunset the other night it was gorgeous! i really do love it here! 

- i have the coolest family!! they send me the best packages! thanks guys! 

- Sister kelly and I she goes home in december and is dying out here! 

 

 

HEY!
Two more weeks until transfers! i can't believe it! i have almost survived my first transfer! i won't be transferred because im still training so i have another six weeks here in Collins Hill and then i will probably stay another 6 weeks here after that so i can be senior companion in the area. woot! Sister Castleton is going to be leaving us but Sister Kelly is staying here, president said she is dying here. We are hoping for a trio and we keep asking president about it! it would be so much fun.   we would be an amazing and powerful trio too. we would do soo good! so cross your fingers.

This week was soo good. i don't even know where to start! How about a baptism?

She had her final interview Wednesday with Elder Lee and she passed with an A+ and two gold stars! it was soo excited then we had to wait until Saturday for it to happen. when Saturday finally came around we got a ride to the church to practice singing our song. oh! Sister Kelly, Sister Castleton, Sister Arbon, the Elders and I sang a song the baptism! we sang When I was Baptized. :) it sounded super good! so we went early to go practice it, because we hadn't sang with the Elders yet, as we were practicing Sister Bennion (mission presidents wife) walked in the room. she said "y'all sound lovely we are singing a song at a funeral on Monday and you get to be my choir!" that's the next story! then she showed up, she was so excited! we took her to go change into her suit and then took pictures! Then we had the service and a good amount of people showed up which was awesome! She had to be baptized twice because the first time her foot came up. but after her baptism she was so happy. She kept walking around telling everyone she was a Mormon. it was so funny. After the baptism the ward members had brought some treats! it was way nice so we socialize for a bit then they all left. We also had interviews with president, which went well. i love president and his wife they are lots of fun. 

Oh so Sister Bennion's Choir. it was a ton of fun. we learned a song in two days. She gave it to us the night before and then we practiced it that morning its called as a child. it was super pretty. We went to someones funeral and sung it. it was fun and kinda awkward and really good for contacting. The Piano she had to play was a really crappy one and didn't play the accompaniment very well. they had an opening and closing song and us missionaries were the only ones singing. it was so awkward but we were very happy to do it. After we were done Sister Bennion took us all out for brusters. Brusters is a Georgia thing. they serve ice cream and milkshakes and its all outside at a walk up window its super cool. 

On Saturday night we went to go play soccer, I LOVE playing soccer! it is so much fun. we had quite the turn out too. We were about to start when Jimmy and Heather showed up. So we talked to them for a while then we started to play. some took the game WAY TOO SERIOUSLY!they gave us all positions and then told us what to do and they would get upset at us when we wouldn't do it, or do it correctly.  heather got some great shots ill send them to you later. Heather and Jimmy left to go to publix (a grocery store) and asked if we wanted anything we requested water. so they got us water and then got each set of missionaries (3) one pumpkin to carve! we have yet to carve ours. ours is actually in their car still. whoops. we'll get it sometime. haha Tristan wanted to take us to Steak and Shake but he couldn't drive us there or take us home, we aren't allowed to be alone with males there has to be a female present, and they wanted to take the elders out too. The sisters and elders aren't allowed to eat together. (its kinda silly. they use to be able too) so Tristan and Heather took us (Sister Arbon and I) to Steak and Shake and Jimmy took the Elders to Golden Coral. which jimmy loves for some reason. it was so much fun! Tristan is hilarious and so is heather. Heather is going to be converted i know it! jimmy even told her! Tristan is going to take some time but i can see him eventually coming too. they are so much fun! and Jimmy hopefully set up and appointment with the bishop so he can start coming back. they are a great family and they have said that they expect to be invited to my wedding and can't wait to come visit in Utah!! Heather came to church this last Sunday too. and she CRIED! it was amazing! she said "these people are getting me!" she loved sacrament meeting and hopefully she will come this Sunday as well! woot! 

We got Pedicures today!! it was soo awesome! my first pedicure and its on my mission. we are seriously spoiled here. but i love my toes. so did all the other little Asian ladies in the salon too. haha it was a birthday present to sister castleton. very worth it. 

OH! i almost got attacked by a dog this week!! it was so scary! and weird! it was at an investigators house who we go over there all the time, i have been there like 5 or six times before and the dogs have never had a problem with me but for some reason this time they did, he smelled my hand and started barking at me then almost got my hand! i had to run out of the yard! they had shockers on them so they can't leave the yard but the owners didn't call them off! my poor companion was just standing awkwardly at the door talking to them while i was at the end of the driveway staying away from them! it was scary and weird. but all is well! 

My quote and Challenge for a week! "The Father and Son have planned and prepared for your victory. If ye desire, then ye shall have." 

Think of a way to share the Gospel this week, ask God for help or even just ask him for Missionary opportunities. He wants us to succeed and made it that way. Then tell me your stories!! i would love to hear them!! 

Lots of Love and Prayers! 

Sister Hanks

~ Baptism

~ This is all the people in my zone! there are a ton of us and we are quite the silly group. 

~ Only in Georgia do you find Scriptures inside of Egg cartons. haha its one of my favorite scriptures now. 

~ Sister Arbon and I matched one day. We totally didn't plan this.

~   this was before she got baptized! 

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