Hanks 2.0 Across the Pond

 We have had our first baptism since arriving in Aberystwyth !  The elders had met Marcela a couple of months before we arrived, but it didn't work out for one reason or another. But under divine orchestration, the elders ended up knocking on the door of Marcela's mother, and Marcela happened to be there.  Marcela's mom ended up taking the lessons and was baptised this past January, just a week before we arrived. Marcela was attending the Monday night FHE and Wednesday Institute nights but was not taking the missionary lessons.  One day as Tony & I were trying to find someplace for lunch, we ended up at 3-4 different places where the wait for a table was just too long. So we decided to go to the grocery store Tesco, where Marcela worked in the cafe so that we could have a tounch point with her. We ended up having lunch & a conversation with her that eventually lead her to offically take the missionary discussions!  She has had quite the life for a young ...

First off, we are really disappointed we received no direction on how to celbrate a Sr. Missionary Couples half way point of their mission! No ties or white shirts were lit on fire by Elder Hanks.                                               Some Pday catch ups: Here are Elders Dalton & Watkins, looking like they needed to be sperated by their dad for "bothering" each other. Just kidding - we were enjoying a place in our mission where jets, airplanes & helicopters are cleared for some really low fly bys, through these valleys. It is offically called the Mach Loop. You should look it up- it is very, very cool !   The locations were you can get up eye level to the planes is just outside our mission bounderies, so being obedient, we stopped at this cafe location to spot the jets within the mission bounderies. They would be flying above us...

What a month is has been- it goes by so fast!  I really dont know how the young missionaries have time to write home each WEEK ! The weeks are such a blurr!  By the time I write our next update - we will have reached our 1/2 way mark !  I don't know what the ritual is for Sr. Couples to commemorate such an occasion, let me know if you have any ideas!  Thought you would like to see what our building and chapel look like. We have a good handful of people who join by Zoom so even though we look small in numbers in person, our numbers look better on paper thanks to Zoom.  our chapel This is the outside of our building. We get the whole "first floor", which to us Americans, would be the sencond floor.  The left 2/3's is the class room side and remaining 1/3 of the far right side is the chapel side of the building.  We are losing a couple of our chinese students as they have finished their programs. This is Charlie (that is just his UK name) who really hit i...