Lions and tigers and bears - oh my!

We have had some cool miracles this past week; in particular in finding investigators! 

One miracle find:
We had met a young man on the street and invited him to English class. He came 2 weeks in a row and the second week he came he asked me about a picture of Jesus Christ I had with me. We talked about it and he said he would like to learn to trust in Jesus Christ. I gave him the picture I had and invited him back to learn more. He came back to the church the next day where we taught him about Jesus Christ's life and he really liked it! He came to church the next day for all 3 hours and the only part he didn't like was that he didn't get the memo to wear formal clothes. So i think next week he will wear formal clothes. But he has been taught twice now and has agreed to be baptized. He even invited a friend to come to the church too! He's awesome!

We also taught a Chinese man this past week the first lesson at the church and he brought a Indian friend who really wants to learn about Jesus Christ. We are hoping to have many people progress towards baptism in the few months-  so that's what we need. Pray for us! We are finding so many people to teach, but now we need to baptize them! It's frustrating that they are not progressing more, but we need to help them understand is that this is what will give them true happiness! 

This past week we also went to Melaka for exchanges and we had a great time with the elders there. They are awesome and they are doing a great job at helping others come unto Christ! 

I have loved working as a missionary this week. The branch had a missionary Sunday this past week where missionary work was the underlining topic of discussion in sacrament meeting. We had Elder Baer, a branch RM, and the branch mission leader give talks and it was very spiritual. I hope that with all the talking of missionary work the work in this branch will pick up! Also in sacrament meeting I got to play the accompaniment of the musical number which was the EFY medley. I didn't do that bad so that's a plus!!! I was pretty nervous. 

I'm loving the mission, like I said before, and I want to help everyone we see and teach,  be baptized and to come unto Christ! I love this church and this work. Love you all and sorry my email isn't too fun this week, but maybe next time. 

We did go to the local zoo here which was pretty cool and had tigers, lions, and bears. OH MY! and it was only 2 ringgit so that's like 53 american cents. Talk about cheap right? 

Peace, from your missionary in Malaysia!

Elder Hanks



PS. we are losing Pres. & Sis. Mains this week! They have been an awesome mission president & wife! They have worked so hard for all of us missionaries & we will really miss them. Pres. & Sis Simmons officially start on Wednesday July 1st!

my arrival picture in 2013 with Pres. & SIs. Mains

 

Our Miracle Week with some crickets along the way!

This has been a great week of success and finding new investigators. Elder Baer and I at the beginning of the week discussed our efforts in finding new investigators and we both came to the conclusion that we needed to find 3 new investigators. This goal was confirmed to me as from the Lord when we received the same commitment idea from the assistants; to find 3 investigators this week. The Lord was with us in all our efforts to find these 3 investigators. On Monday we were hoping to meet with the first of the 3 new investigators for the week but were discouraged when this potential wouldn't answer our calls to confirm a time with us. Thinking on what to do I had a prompting to call another potential we had made contact with the week before. I called him and asked him if we could make an appointment with him for the next day. In return he replied, "Actually, can you just come tonight?" We ended up going to see this investigator and shared with him the Restoration of the gospel and invited him to read the Book of Mormon. It was a miracle to see the Lord move his hand in our work and help us have a great start to finding people at the very start of our week. 

This sort of miracle did not happen only once this week though!  On Wednesday's exchange with Elder Perritt (one of the assistants), we were on our way - with a member,  to teach a referral she wanted us to meet with, one that Elder Liddle called us with, that the Ipoh elders had passed on to us. 

Once I received the phone number I called this potential to set up a time later in the week. This sweet Indian woman - instead of settling for a time later in the week just asked for us to come over that very night!  We did and there we shared the message of the Restoration of the gospel and the spirit was felt so strong - although I wasn't sure if they understood everything we shared with them! haha language barriers you know!  

I know the Spirit touched their hearts as we knelt in prayer with this family and the sister-  whom I had initially contacted,  offered the closing prayer and expressed her feelings for a greater love for our Heavenly Father, a second chance to love Him, and that she had felt the Spirit touch her heart. It was a great lesson and they invited us back the next day! 

The next day when we went back at the appointed time there was our new investigator ready and waiting for us WITH her mother, brother-in-law, and sister also waiting! Because they are all Indian,  I was somewhat afraid that with the lesson in English they wouldn't understand everything. It was a great thing that our member came with us again because once he shared the message of Joseph Smith's first vision they had questions and wanted to know more. We gave them all a copy of the Book of Mormon in Malay and invited them to read it to know if it was true. We have a return appointment in two weeks as they are going out of town until then. But we look forward to seeing them again! 

Our zone surpassed its goal in finding new investigators this week; Elder Baer and I found 6! And Elder Baer and I also achieved all of our goals! I am pretty stoked about that!  

Happy Father's Day as well. It was a great Father's Day as all the Father's in the branch sung a musical number, "Ye Elders of Israel" and it brought a great spirit. After church many members accompanied us to visit an older man in the branch who has some health problems. It was so cool to sit with him and just be with him-  it felt like being around a  family and I was so happy to be with so many faithful saints. 

Last story. For those who read my previous experience with a guy from Amway should pay attention to this similar experience we had this week.

 ooooohhhh nooooooo, - not another Amway! 

I had called a potential and asked him to meet -  which he agreed to meet us. A few days before the appointment he called us to confirm the appointment-  which I found surprising because it's usually us who has to call to remind them. Then again, the morning of the appointment he called us again to confirm. In this conversation I asked him where he would like to meet so we could talk. he responded, "We can meet outside a restaurant." I thought that was a weird place to meet, but he quickly added, "It's near your church so I can bring you to it." So we agreed. 

The time for the appointment came and a member decided to take us to the place where we were to meet this guy. As we were pulling up to the appointed parking lot we saw this guy sitting in his car dressed up in a nice white shirt and tie waiting in his car. I thought that was very weird because people never wear that type of clothing unless it's for church(which is our job) or for business...... haha! Shoulda known better! 

We got out of our member's car and approached this guys car. We knocked on the window and he rolled his window down. He greeted us and immediately motioned to get in his car! haha -  Elder Baer and I looked at each other like, "Oh no... not again." With experience now we asked the guy-  "Where do you want to take us?" "To eat." "Where are we going to eat?" "At a restaurant." "What restaurant?" "My restaurant." "Where is your restaurant?" When he said where his restaurant was Elder Baer knew that it was super far. Elder Baer kindly asked, "You want to go to this restaurant so we can talk about Jesus Christ right?" The man responded, "I have Christian friends who are meeting us there." (Well, that didn't answer the question.) So we asked again for straight forward this time, "Would you like to learn about Jesus Christ?" "Actually, I want to take you guys to my restaurant so I can talk to you guys about my business. Everybody needs to eat and my business can help with that."

We both looked at each other and knew what to say. We kindly declined the man's offer. Said that if he would ever like to learn about Jesus Christ to give us a call, then we walked back to the member's car, got in and went to eat somewhere else. 

Anyways, we are loving the work here in JB. Now with so many investigators we are teaching we are hoping to help them all be baptized soon. Wish us luck! 

Elder Hanks

For fun this week a member brought some crickets he somehow got from Thailand and I got to try one. I don't like it. The flavor is actually really good, it's just that you are eating a bug and the texture(CRUNCH) is really weird and it feels weird. This is my reaction. 

3 weeks of emails.... if I were you I'd just look at the pictures!

June 14 2015

                                    

Events of this past week was the JB zone meeting we held. Elder Baer and I did the preparations for it and came up with 3 commitments we felt would help our zone; 1. Teach short and powerful lessons. 2. Follow up with investigators daily. 3. Find 2 new investigators every week. Zone meeting was a great spiritual experience where we talked openly about things we need and hopes for the mission. We also played a game where we spray each other in the face, that was hilarious. 

I have seen great miracles from doing these commitments and it brings a great sense of satisfaction that only comes when you are fulfilling your purpose as a missionary. It feels really good to have that. A goal Elder Baer and I have is to try and find more investigators this week. It's something that we really need. 

I also need to practice talking to more people and getting out of my comfort zone by being more humble. That may sound weird to you, but it's a truth that I feel I need to apply to my service as a missionary. I have never really had a problem with socializing with people, in fact I enjoy it, but the times when I decided to not talk to someone or help someone is when I find myself a little bit too high on the pride scale. This is a goal that I wish to improve on in praying more to the Lord to help me be humble enough to see His ever-preparing hand in our area of His vineyard.

 Miracle this week was on Saturday. We had to travel to Melaka which is 3 hours away to conduct some baptismal interviews for some people who were going to be baptized there. We left first thing in the morning, got there late morning, did the interviews in the afternoon and traveled back home arriving in the evening just before we had to go home. As we were walking through our apartment complex to our building we saw a former investigator we knew from a while back just sitting on the playground's swing. He was just sitting by himself and we both felt we should talk to him. After talking for a minute and talking about the up's and down's of life I asked him, "Are you on one of life's downs right now?" he looked at us and admitted he was. He went on talking about how hard life was right now and he was just taking a minute to ponder when we walked up(coincidence?) He mentioned how that was a little weird but that it must have also been arranged by our Heavenly Father. We shared with him the message of Jesus Christ's atonement and its power. We then asked him if he would like to continue to learn more about how his gospel can change his life and he said that would be great. What a cool miracle of being in the right place at the right time.

Anyways, I'm loving the mission still. I know it's what I say every week but it has helped be become a better person who doesn't want to do sin and do all that's right. I want to be a good person for the rest of my life and always strive to follow Jesus Christ's example and eventually have an eternal family. That's what I have come to know is what I want in my life. I saw this little baby of a member yesterday in Church named Adam, cute little fella. He was just sitting there with his dad playing with him. He would giggle and smile at his dad. When I saw that I felt so happy and I wanted to have that. So that's something that I have come to feel and want this past week. 

(One day there was crazy traffic because of some floods. We were taking the bus, but because of traffic it was taking FOREVER. So we just got off the bus and started walking through traffic. It was pretty fun!) 

Elder Hanks

JUNE 7th 2015 

Well, as you all know, I am staying here in Johor Bahru with Elder Baer, but our zone has gone through some big changes. Here's what happened...

First off our zone consisted of 12 elders in the zone with 3 districts of 4 elders each. Transfers came in and took a big chunk of elders out leaving us with only 8 elders now and 2 districts; one of the districts only has 1 companionship and the other has 3. So we are now the smallest zone in the mission and possibly EVER! In our district before there were 4 Chinese speaking elders and we split JB equally in order to cover the masive city. the other two elders got taken out of JB and Elder Baer and I are now dealing with all of the their investigators that they were teaching, their recent converts, and their less actives on top of the people we were teaching. So technically we are doing the work of two companionships right now, but here is the biggest catch of all. If you have not yet google mapped Johor Bahru you should do so. The city of Johor Bahru is enormous! We made a map of our 'new' area and the map is bigger than Elder Baer and I. We have so far to go to find people and our farthest less active lives an hour car drive away! So we are having fun getting things underneath our feet. 

I had a chance to play investigator this past week. Since the other elders' area became our we now had to teach a certain investigator they had only contacted but not yet began teaching. One day while we were out on the east side of the city we get a call from this guy who tells us that he is waiting for us at a big mall in the more west side of the city. We were surprised because neither of us made an appointment with us, but he really wanted to meet with us. We agreed a little bit reluctantly because it was a great distance. 
An hour later we got off the city bus and wandered in the mall until we found this guy. He was really excited to see us and greeted us warmly. Before we could find a place to sit and talk he said, "Hey, my dad is outside waiting for us. He wants to meet you guys." I thought, "Okay..." so we went outside where his dad was standing next to his car waiting for us... yeah waiting... We said hi and he said he wanted to take us to a restaurant so we could talk in a better environment. We thought, "Okay." He drove us out of the mall and we started driving quite a distance. Elder Baer and I looked at each other and we were both confused where we were going so we asked them, "What is the name of the place we are going?" "They looked back at us and said, "Amway." (Have you ever heard of that before?) I heard that before but I couldn't remember quite what it was. We drove for like 30 minutes when we finally pulled up to this Amway store. I walked in a little wary of our real intentions on being there, to teach the gospel or buy Amway. We sat down and he wanted us to wait for a friend. Now, we did not want to be there(me especially) and we had another appointment later that night back near our apartment and they have just driven us even farther from where we wanted to be. I told the potential investigator, "We do not have that much time." He said, "yeah I know, but just wait for my friend to come." While we were waiting I asked this guy why he wanted us to teach him about church. He kept looking around and didn't really answer us straight at first. Then I asked him directly why, he replied, "So I can meet more of your church people and sell them Amway." At that word I said, "Well, thank you for your time but we have to go. When you are interested in learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ call us, but we are not interesting in buying and selling Amway." He looked shocked, but we just went as we found a taxi and got back to our appointment. 

 We got to the appointment we were supposed to be at and we knocked on the gate. We asked for the woman I had previously made an appointment with, but she was not there. Instead was a young man who was somehow related to her; maybe her worker or something. We were let in and sat down with this younger man. We talked with him for a while when we learned more about him. He is a Christian, chinese boy who was first really happy to have us as friends because we were white people who could speak Mandarin, and second because he had some real questions and love for Jesus Christ. We shared with him the Restoration of the gospel and he asked us to come back next week. We are hoping to go back on Tuesday and share with him the plan of Salvation. We are so excited! 

I am loving JB and I'm really excited because all of JB is under my area and I am planning on hitting it hard with the gospel. Elder Baer is so fun and I love him with all my heart. It's sad that this is his last transfer, but he is not thinking about it at all.

There is this week's letter. 

Things are going awesome! 

Elder Hanks

JUNE 1st 2015

I would like to apologize in advance, the computer today is having problems so I may only get one picture in this email and it won't be that long either. Sorry...

This week we had a great YSA activity of capture the flag. It was organized by our mission leader who is so awesome! I love his guts and he is always trying to help us in the work. The activity was a blast and it was capture the flag. I got to share a message about Captain Moroni and the title of Liberty. We had to wear our missionary clothes to the activity so that was pretty hot, but the activity was so fun! We are having another activity this month at the beach so that will be a blast with the district.

In other news, it's transfer news today so we don't yet know what's happening, but I'm confident I am staying here in JB. I'm not going anywhere. I'm looking forward to a new transfer and I'm determined to kill it!!!!! 

I was also very sad to hear about Elder L. Tom Perry's passing. It was sad news to all of us here in JB and we are praying for his family. But the great thing about the restored gospel is that it will continue to go forward and we will always remember the difference he made. 

Transfers came in. I'm staying and absorbing another area into ours. Crazy area now!                                         

                                 

We do the Haka in Singapore too! Last Zone Conference with the Mains...

This past week we went to Singapore for our zone conference so sorry for my ridiculously short responses to all your emails last week. But I will make it up to you today... hopefully... !

Singapore was a great experience for my companion and I this week!  We enjoyed our P-day in Singapore. We went to the top of the Sands which is the amazing boat hotel in Singapore. It was such a cool view of all of Singapore and we enjoy being in such an amazing foreign land. I was having some sinus or allergy problems so I got me some nice looking shades to hide my read eyes and fake tears! haha !  I got some pretty funny comments during zone conference though. While some missionaries,  including President and Sister Mains, were speaking my eyes were all watering up, not from crying though. That's not what everyone else thought- As I looked around to make sure no one was looking at me or, to at least check to see if there were other people 'crying' - some people would catch a glimpse of me and mouth to me, "Are you okay?" I would try and explain that I'm okay, but let's just say that I got plenty of people asking, "Elder Hanks, how are things? Everything okay?" Haha ! Funny and embarrassing! Hope it goes away soon! 

Our zone for the past few weeks has been putting together a presentation for our mission president and his wife (this being their last Zone Conference before they leave back home)-  that being the Hakka. For the past few weeks we have been practicing the words and the dance and it was all building up to Tuesday's zone conference. Everyone was outside taking a zone conference picture when two of our zone members, one native to New Zealand and the other of Polynesian background, called out the Hakka cry. You could basically say, "JB zone ASSEMBLE!" It was a great and  President and Sister mains really loved it- In fact, I think everyone loved it. 

Thanks for the great stories about my Great Grandpa Murri! I totally guessed it was my ancestor (by luck) & so did the other missionaries in my group. They all said "this has Elder Hanks written all over it!" So thanks for sending that! 

Zone conference and MLC were great spiritual builders. We talked a lot about the doctrine of Christ as taught in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31. The Spirit was very strong and to see our mission president give his testimony to us was just another realization that time is short. I have come to re-realize the importance of opening my mouth and do as the apostle M. Russell Ballard taught us a few weeks ago,  via a video to us missionaries in the Singapore mission, "to tell someone about it."

Another training we received recently in MLC was about the gift of tongues. It's not about studying the language every minute of every day. It's not about stressing every night over the mission language, it's about loving the people and those you serve. It was a great lesson to learn even for me who is a 'veteran' missionary. I can always try and improve in the gift of tongues -  loving the people who I am with.

I love my mission and my companion. He is great and with him at my side, I am going to try and make the most of all I can get with him because I can learn a lot from him. I love the words that my dad shared with me in this week's email. He invited me to not worry too much about going home and doing my best to focus on the mission. Especially now, where I have come to know time and time again the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, it seems silly to think about anything else than to share the Book of Mormon with others. 

Short story of the week. We went out to a super far part of our area. While there we were struggling to find a way back to our home because it was getting late and the buses had stopped running in that part of town. While waiting on Elder Baer to call a taxi  a man was just standing there waiting for his own taxi. I talked to him and engaged in conversation. As we talked, we got around to what I was doing in Malaysia. I shared with him our purpose and the Book of Mormon. This man was Hindu, but his wife was Christian. When he heard that it was another Testament of Jesus Christ he was excited and really wanted to share it with his wife. He gave me his information and took the Book. What a cool and great experience to be able to share that with him. 

Also, one more story sorry!  It was a good week of sharing the gospel! While on exchanges this week Elder Pierce and I were waiting for a taxi(again I know) and while we were standing there I saw an elderly man looking at us. I approached him and told him who I was, he told me he was also Christian from Sarawak. He then, before I could say anything to him, expressed a concern he had about Christianity. He said (in Chinese), "You know, the problem with churches today is that they are not all perfect. In the Bible it speaks of John who says that although he is baptizing by water there will be another who baptized later by fire." I was blown away.... I looked at him and said, "Well, in our church, the Church of Jesus Christ, we baptize by water and by fire, or the Holy Ghost." He looked shocked. He asked me, "Really?" I said, "Really." I told him that I knew he was a genuine seeker of the truth and, "You just found the truth." He asked, "I found it?" "You found it." "I found it?" "You found it." He was blown away. We exchanged information and his information was sent to the Sarawak missionaries. So cool.

Anyways. Today was a lot of stories but hope you enjoy!
 Love, Elder Hanks

Look! I found Elder Gara at Zone Conference in Singapore! Yea! Doesn't
he look great as a missionary! 

Having miracles every week!

MAY 17, 2015 
I have a great testimony that the grace if Jesus Christ makes all the difference. I have tried to embrace as much as possible the grace of Christ as He has made the difference in our work. We had some great goals set for us this week and we set out to accomplish them with vigor. But it seems that half way through the week we got burned out a little bit. We didn't really know what happened, but we tried our best to exercise our faith in Christ and His work. In the end we worked hard and accomplished all of our goals and it was really by the mercy of God that we did. He is so good when it comes to His work. 

We had an awesome combined district meeting this past week with another district and we were trained about the love of Christ. It was a great training that helped us all gain a greater appreciation for Christ and what He does for us. The zone as a whole is doing great. We are going to hit our baptismal goal for the month which is so good! We are hyped!

JB! 

I've enjoyed this week as it has been a crazy and fun week including playing soccer with kids, finding people to teach, bringing people to church and watching a wonderful elderly sister receive baptism. She is a sweet little woman and I love her. She has a beautiful smile and her baptismal service was a great experience to witness. We watched again the video, "Because He Lives." The Spirit touched me greatly. We are doing great. We love the work we are called to do and the Lord continues to bless us with tender mercies. 

A miracle we experienced this past week was with a sweet little lady who comes from no Christian background. We have always been hesitant to invite her to church because of having so little knowledge of  Christianity, so we were basically starting from square one- who is God. While traveling to another investigators house, we passed by her house & we felt prompted to invite her to church. We knocked and she came out to greet us. We asked her if she would want to come to church and she said YES, but she didn't have a car to get there. We thought for a moment and remembered a member who is somewhat a little inactive, who lives just up the street from here. So we called him up and asked if he could take this sweet little auntie to church and he siad YES too! 

We were so happy to see her come to church and ask many questions. One time during sacrament meeting, as the member of the branch presidency was giving his talk, she heard something in his talk that she really liked so she calls up to the podium and asked a question- totally adding to the talk he was giving! She got a few looks from some of the other people, but she wasn't looking at the audience, she was looking at the branch presidency member as he then answered her question! Haha! She was so happy and so were we! She was very welcomed by the branch! So great and what a blessing! 

Miracles are happening here!  I am in Singapore today because Zone Conference is tomorrow ! Got to run! 

Love you all, 

Elder Hanks

May 10, 2105 

Pre Rugby picture- clean clothes! 

We had zone meeting this past week and that was a really fun experience as it was my first zone meeting. I love my zone and all they do. We had a fun activity the day before of rugby. Because it rained a little bit before we played we were like slipping all over the place, but we all had fun. 

The meeting itself was great as we trained the zone to have more urgency in doing the Lord's work. When we are urgent in doing the Lord's work we are successful and more effective. So the ultimate vision that we came up with, that we talked with our zone about, was the vision for every companionship in the JB zone to have 1 baptism per month. There is a lot of faith here in the zone and with that faith I know we can accomplish our zone's baptismal goal for the year. 

Elder Baer and I went to Melaka this past week to do exchanges with the elders there; Elder Lallemant and Elder Ebeling. They are two really faithful and awesome elders. I enjoyed my time there as we taught a beautiful family of Tamil people and a Chinese girl later that day. We met with that Chinese girl which was her first lesson with the elders and by the end of sharing the Restoration with her Elder Lallemant and Elder Ebeling had her commit to baptism. Sick! They are doing great work there in Melaka!

I got to skype my family today and I loved talking to them. Hanks family, you are the best! Love you guys! I'm just so grateful that we have such a powerful understanding that families are forever. So you can see that picture(Nice face Max). 

Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's. A great weekend it's been for me as an investigator I taught in Miri received baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost this weekend. And now we are looking forward to another baptism here, this week too. I'll keep you updated on that. (It's a long and fun story.)

A miracle we experienced this week was in finding, teaching and going for baptism. We had contacted a younger Indian boy a few weeks ago. He express interest in learning more about the "bible" and so we had set up an appointment with him for last Friday. We went over at the arranged time but couldn't find him there. So instead we found a friend of his who was doing homework so we talked to him for a bit until the boy we were looking for came back. He and his friend said they were busy at the time preparing for an exam and so we started to leave when he came out and said "you know, I have an hour if you guys want to talk." So we went back and talked to these 2 young men about the church. They don't have a Christian background and didn't know a lot about church stuff so we just showed them pictures from the gospel art book and answered any questions they had. When we came to a picture of Jesus Christ being baptized, I asked them if they knew what it was and if so, would they like to be baptized. They said they would like time to think about it. They continued looking through the book and when they got to the baptismal pictures in the back, I think the Spirit really touched their hearts and the looked up and said "this is what we would like to follow". So we are now working towards baptism with the first young man and his friend is now a new investigator! What a miracle! 

Love you all!

韩长老

My future car....! Please! 

Pres. Mains 

Going through immigration with thousands of other people! 

My first MLC in Singapore and we are ramping up!

May 3, 2015 

This past week my companion and I got to go to Singapore for our mission's missionary leadership council. It was such a spiritual experience and I loved being there with some of the greatest leaders in the mission including our mission president. I took away so much from that meeting and I now look forward to MLC every month. On the way back from Singapore we contacted some Mainland Chinese people in the line through immigration. We shared with them a little bit of what the church is about and they thought it was so cool. It was hard for me to understand them though,  because we would say to them,

 "我们知道这个教会是真实的。你们愿意学习这个复音能不能祝福你们的家庭吗？“  

(We know that this church is true. Are you willing to learn the polyphony (principles?)  can bless your family too – I had to google translate this &I dont think it’s quite  right! )

Then they were like, "哦！可以！没有问题。但是你们的教会是在中国里面哪里？”

(Oh! You can! No problem. But your church is in China where there)   not in china?

So it was fun stuff anyway! But we are looking forward to sharing with our zone what we learned in MLC.

We are working with our investigators towards baptism and it's going really well for them right now. Our zone is building up in urgency and effectiveness because we have an awesome zone (haha, they all are really). We are so stoked to be part of this zone and we both feel like there's a great 'stirring' in the zone. It is a great feeling and we are going to wreck this next transfer! 

As my companion and I were preparing for zone meeting this past week we were studying in Preach My Gospel chapter 1 to look for a greater purpose to share with our zone missionaries. My companion helped make a great discovery from our study. On page 2 it speaks of how our understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ grows the greater we will feel the importance of making the gospel known to the world and all those we pass( I didn't quote it word for word, but close enough). As we were talking about it Elder Baer looked at me and said, "As you were reading that paragraph the last time a thought came to my mind. If we don't feel the importance of preaching the gospel, we don't understand the atonement." Isn't that a great insight!

We are off to our zone activity- Rugby in the rain! It's going to be insane! 

Love you all and I'm looking forward to Mother's Day skyping my family next week!

Elder Hanks

April 27, 2015 

I had to say good-bye to Miri this past week and it was a weird feeling that I have never had before leaving an area; I had a strong impression of fulfillment and satisfaction. I felt and know that leaving Miri I had done all that I could do to fulfill my purpose as a missionary there in that part of the vineyard. That was a great feeling. I do miss Miri and I hope to go back one day. 

I really do love Miri, and I'm really excited for Johor Bahru. It's in West Malaysia right on the border of Malaysia and Singapore. So whenever we go to Singapore it's by bus, no longer by plane. We will be going to Singapore, my new companion - Elder Bear and I, for our mission's MLC (mission leader conference). I'm really excited to serve the Lord and the mission as a zone leader and I already feel the great responsibility this calling has.  I know it will help inspire me to work harder than ever before.  With only about 5 months left there's nothing to lose!
 The branch here in Johor Bahru is great. It's also a small branch, but a branch of strong members. A lot of them have been to the temple and on missions so there is a powerful spirit when I am with them. I loved sacrament meeting with them as they all knew the importance of the sacrament meeting and..... well, I just love it! It's amazing! 

Elder Baer and I are getting down to the work as we were able to find some less actives that some people didn't know were in JB and teach other investigators that are on date for next month. Things are going great here in JB and I am very grateful for all the missionaries, members, investigators, and people that have been a part of my mission. 

I just want to give my deep gratitude and love to all the members and other people I met in Miri. I love you all and I will always remember you and you have changed my life.  (a few departing pictures from Miri) 

Love Elder Hanks