2 Bike Wrecks and a transfer (ahhh!)

Transfers came this week and I got the news that I would be leaving the wonderful area of Sibu! It's sad to leave such a wonderful place, especially with so much going on. I'm going to be transferred to a little area on the opposite side of the mission called Sitiawan. It's the smallest area in the mission a Chinese Elder can work in, so I'm a little surprised it's my second area. But I hope that there is a very special purpose in my going there. I'm going to miss Elder Earl though, he has been just so great!  I hope that the work in Sibu will grow immensely while he continues to serve here in Sibu.  (Sibu is in East Malaysia, his new area in Sitiawan is in West Malaysia) 

Some fun things that has happened here in Sibu over the last couple of days include dropping an investigator, being involved in two bike accidents in less than an hour, a new great investigator, and of course I'm getting transferred.

So, first the investigator. We have been working with him for a while now and he stopped progressing for a while because he was out of town. Now that he is back -  he won't stop calling us, literally. He had been calling us for a while wanting to just hang out with us. During one of these calls he informed us that he wanted to go proselyting with us; okay no problem. So we met up with him and started on our way to our first appointment which was a good distance away.

 He followed us there on his moto at like 5 miles an hour and as soon as we got there he said, "Okay I'm going home." So he left!  We met with our appointment, had a great time, and then left. Later we get a phone call from this investigator who followed us and then left - and he said that he wanted to meet up again. We had time and we were on the way to the church, so we told him to meet us there so we could talk about the gospel. We brought a member with us to meet with him and teach him a lesson and when he showed up he said he wanted to go to the nearby stadium and jog around the track!  I asked why because we thought he wanted to discuss the gospel. Super weird,  but we finally got him in the church. I was on exchanges this day with a malay elder so it was all up to me to do this lesson. 

As I tried to have a good lesson, this investigator was completely silent; wouldn't answer my questions, nothing!  So after a very awkward hour, we ended and left the lesson. He kept calling us several times a day for a few days,  when he called one day and said we should go exercise at the stadium together. I told him that we didn't have time to but we can set up a time to meet and such. He then said to me, "You know that your church isn't true right?" He then asked to talk to my companion. I handed Elder Earl the phone so the investigator could say the same thing to Elder Earl. Elder Earl being so skilled said, "Oh really? Did you ask God? Did you pray about it?" He responded, "No." "Well, I know my church is true." Before long the investigator just hung up the phone. We thought that would be the last of him, but he has kept calling us several times a day still!  

Some of the Elders from Sibu Jaya invited us up to there area to teach a Chinese lady they had been trying to work with. We went up there and met this sweet sister. This sister was very quiet but loved the gospel. We taught the Restoration and she took it all in. Near the end of our lesson, I gave her a Book of Mormon to read and she loved the book. As we were leaving she kept shaking my hand and saying, "Thank you for giving me this book. I'm so happy!!!!" It was so beautiful to see such a love for the Book of Mormon in this sister's eyes. We called her two days later to follow up with her and she said that she had already read to 2 Nephi. Awesome! Can't wait to hear what will be going on with her and her progress in the gospel.

So, the bike accidents; one wasn't my fault and the other was. We were on exchanges (only weird things happen on exchanges), I was with Elder Kehl and Elder Olivares. We were on the way to the church for a social activity, Elder Olivares was in front, then me, then Elder Kehl. Elder Olivares rode past the red light at an intersection and rode ahead while Elder Kehl and I had to wait at the light. We were parked next to a truck and the common thing to do was to grab on to the side of the truck to get more speed. We grabbed on, me in front, and picked up some speed. When I was satisfied with the speed I had ( and it wasn't even that fast anyways!)  I let go. But Elder Kehl wanted to keep going. The road was already pretty narrow and as Elder Kehl kept holding on, he kept going faster until his front tire was rubbing my back tire. I could feel them rubbing when I felt a jolt on my bike and then nothing. I turned around in time to see Elder Kehl fly over his bike and crash on the road luckily sliding onto the grass nearby. He had actually flown over his handle bars and landed on my back tire as I was riding. I have a mudguard there so his body was actually on the tire, but he broke the guard and fell onto the asphalt. I was totally fine and didn't even fall but he ended up with some scrapes and bruises but is alright- haha - dangerous stuff when missionaries bike ride! 

The next accident happened a few minutes later. We switched back to normal companionships, I was with Elder Earl, and Elder Olivares decided to come with us to an appointment. We were on the side of the road passing cars which where stopped because of a red light. There were some guys doing something sketchy on the side of the road, which caused me to look over at them just long enough for me to be too distracte! haha -  I was looking over at them when I looked forward again I saw a parked truck on the side of the road about 12 yards ahead of me! With how fast I was going, I knew I couldn't evade it, but I still tried my best to dodge it!  As I tried to turn out of the way, my handle bar smashed into the back corner of the truck and smashed the tail light. The owner of the car was the guy doing sketchy things on the side of the road and he walked over and seeing the damage I did - was not happy. I immediately said to him, "How much money do I owe you?" The guy kept looking at the car still not that happy looking when he looked at me and something went on in his head that he all of a sudden looked calm. He looked at me and said, "Don't worry about it." I was shocked. "Really?" I said. "Don't worry about it." he said again. He then walked back to doing the sketchy thing he was doing before. It was super weird but I'm just glad that I didn't get hurt or do any more damage than I really did. 

Well, I'm off so Sitiawan! I'm excited for a great new start in a new area and I hope that I may be the best Sitiawan missionary that I can be! 

Love you all!

Elder Hanks

1st email: Spider and stolen bike helmets! 2nd email- Finished my training & transfers are coming !

Feb 10th email: 
Chinese New Year has begun to die down, but I feel like it is building up for the last day of Chinese New Year; the 15th. Just like the first day of Chinese New Year with all the fireworks and firecrackers firing off, I feel like the last day of Chinese New Year will be another night with little sleep. some of these picture cannot quite capture the brilliance of that first day of Chinese New Year, but I am dead serious when I say that fireworks and firecrackers were being fired off at every house, except ours. 

Some fun things that happened this week, one morning as Elder Earl and I were getting ready to head out, Elder Earl was sitting on the couch next to me when he just started making a weird screaming sound. I though Elder Earl was being his funny-self when he said, "Spider!" I thought, "Oh brother, just smash it." I stood up and told Elder Earl to smash it when I got behind the couch to see a spider a little smaller than my hand sitting behind the couch. I realized we would need more assistance with handling the situation. Calling on other elders' assistance, we took on the task of getting the spider, but this spider was trained. We grabbed an empty container to trap it in, when, with great speed, the spider ran under the couch. We would not let him escape. We moved the couch and it would charge at us, then right before it got to us would turn back and get back under the couch we moved. For the next ten minutes of moving the couch back and forth and the spider charging then retreating, we slammed the container over the spider trapping it and sealing the container, disposed of it. It was pretty fun.

Looking for the giant spider!

check out the size of the bugs over here! 

One other event that happened, Yesterday, as we were getting ready to leave the Church and head home, a really nice BMW drove into the church. By the way, people who drive cars like that are RICH. This car drove around the church once, and our District President was a little uneasy. The car drove around the church again, and when I tried to look into the window to see who it was, all I saw was two people in the car with some sort of hat on. It was really weird shaped. Seeing them drive around again, the District President exclaimed, "your bikes! are they stealing your bikes?" the BMW drove out of the parking lot and away while we when to look to see if our bikes were okay. We had locked the bikes up so they were okay, but our helmets were gone...they stole our helmets. That doesn't really make sense, because if you are driving a BMW there is no way that you need or would even want to steal bike helmets. We went upstairs and watched some of the security cameras of them driving away. Couldn't really get information to track them down, but our night guard was determined to do something. So as he's working on that, I'm just kind of grateful that nothing really bad was stolen. So we got to buy some new helmets. fun stuff. 

looking at security images of our helmets getting stolen 

So, the investigator we had on date for this Saturday has been changed to another date, the 8th of March. They didn't come to church last week and we figured that if they just missed once for Chinese New Year and they come next week and so on, they could still be baptized the 15th of February. But, after telling us that they would come this Sunday, they did not come. We felt prompted to go over to their house and tell them that we could not baptize them this Saturday. It was really hard telling them that their date has been changed and they looked devastated, but I think the Spirit was with them and we explained to them that this is for the best. So they are now looking forward to the 8th of March and they hope that I will baptize them. We have transfers between now and then, so unless I get transferred, I will hopefully have my first baptism next month.

One other cool experience that I want to share is pretty cool. Several weeks ago, a member brought her friend to church. Her friend, a non-member really liked church especially primary for her kids, but for some reason never came back. For a week or so after her first coming to church, we couldn't find her or call her, we didn't have her number. When we just happened to run into her and the mall with her husband. We talked and was able to get her number. Several weeks later, and after many attempts to meet with her, we called her this past week and she said she was going to that member's home in whom she was friends with. I asked if it was ok if we came and she was okay with it; called the member and got a time to be there. That day, I went on exchanges with Elder Sessions, a Malay Elder. We went over and shared a message about the Book of Mormon and the blessings of the Gospel on families. We felt the Spirit very strong that morning and gave her a Book of Mormon to read. This past Sunday was testimony meeting for our branch. The member whom we were with when we taught bore her testimony and expressed her gratitude for the opportunity she had to be with us when we taught her friend. She than, after the meeting, told the senior missionaries she wanted to bring her friend over to her house every Saturday morning and have a lesson with us. I am so excited to teach this sister. She has such a wonderful Spirit and I can see her having great blessings from the gospel.

Well, that was a long email and if you read it all, great! If you didn't, I understand. But I hope you just know that I'm grateful to be on a mission here in Sibu, and miracles really do happen.

Love you all!!! 

Elder Hanks

Feb 17th email :

Finishing up training last week was rewarding in it's fullest. I really enjoyed training with Elder Earl, but with that extra hour of studying taken away, now we have so much more time to go proselyting and I'm loving it!!!

Chinese New Year has ended, but because of the rich abundance of food, we still eat. Also, with Chinese New Year being over, when we call to set up appointments, people now know that we are not just coming over to 'gong xi fa cai' but to actually teach a lesson.

One of the great lessons we had this week is of a Less Active and a potential investigator. We went with a member to visit and talk with this less active who lives right next door to a investigator we have. The investigator's wife was with this less active and we had a long talk getting to know one another. When we began discussing the Book of Mormon, the potential investigator was very interested with it. What typically happens when we turn to a scripture and share it is the individual will read it and then listen, but not this lady. This sister would read the scripture we wanted to share and then continue to read it and ask questions. They were great questions and before we could even answer the less active began answering her questions and they had a little 'Book of Mormon discussion." I was way impressed and we are hoping to help the less active come back to church and be the fellowshipper for this sister to help her and her family come closer to Christ.

Valentine's was this past week and I was able to go on splits to a wedding!!! I went on splits with Elder Wilson, a cool Malay-speaking elder, and we arrived at an apartment complex where the wedding was happening. We walked into their little apartment and there we ate food before the ceremony. The bride and groom walked in and sat down joining the circle of people. I don't speak Malay so I didn't understand what was being said as they talked and spoke with each other. They asked for our senior missionary, Elder Beus, to say a special prayer blessing them and their marriage. After the prayer, the Ibon branch president began speaking to the couple about marriage and other things. Before long, and after a lot of advice given, apparently they were married; and I didn't even know it...grrr... But it was great to see a young couple get married and advice was given on eventually going to the temple and being sealed. So cool.

On another split with Elder Scott, we stayed in my area and had a wide variety of food which included the delicacies of deer to the weirdness of carrot milk. One of the potential investigators we met with that day whom we have been meeting with for a while, finally accepted us teaching him about the gospel and we have an appointment with him tomorrow! So excited! If he were to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, because he is Buddhist, he would be a strong member, I believe. 

We have been working hard this week to try and meet with as many people as we can, especially with training being done and our having an extra hour of proselyting. And I was able to see some of the fruits of our labors. Yesterday, for sacrament meeting, we had 48 people attend sacrament meeting, which is the highest attendance we have ever had being here in Sibu. It was great to see, but it was also sad to see more than 50% of them leave right after sacrament meeting. We'll have to work on that. ;)

This week may be the last week of Elder Earl and I being here together in Sibu. Transfers are this week and we are sure that one of us will be leaving. It's sad too, we now have two investigators on date for next month, less actives we are excited to work with, and many new investigators to help come closer to Christ. I love Elder Earl and I was so happy to be his trainee and him being my first companion. I'm always going to miss him and I will be sure to stay in contact with him throughout the mission. He is such a great guy and I'm even more grateful I was able to meet his parents in New York this past summer at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Now that our companionship is coming to an end, I'm really nervous on whether or not I will be staying and taking over an area, or moving areas and starting new in a new area. Really nervous but excited! Love you all and Happy Valentine's day! 

With this Holiday of love, I just want to emphasize and bear testimony that the Savior Jesus Christ knows and loves each and every one of us. I have been blessed this past week of feeling that love abundantly in the work. I'm grateful to have served here in Sibu and we will see where the Lord wants me to serve next.

Elder Hanks

Gong Xi Fa Cai ! Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai ! The traditional way of wishing a happy & successful new year! With Chinese New Year starting this past week - it was been a crazy week ! 

Starting with the night of Chinese New Year, we had heard that we would not be able to sleep because of the amount of fireworks that were going to be going off. So that night, we went to bed on time and did all that we were supposed to do as missionaries. As we were going to bed, there were some fireworks outside & it was kinda loud, but not too bad as to prevent us from sleeping. Around 11:00pm however, there began to be an intensified quantity of fire works being shot off and for the next hour fireworks continuously increased until it was just too tempting to look outside. There is a balcony in our apartment that we went outside to watch as the fireworks just went off at almost every house in Sibu! Then 12;00 came and every single Chinese person in Sibu lit off any form of fire thing that they had and Sibu lit up like the sun in mid day (OK not quite that bright but you get the picture!) It was so bright & so loud, I took pictures without my flash & they turned out great (those will be sent later) and I could not even hear anyone talk to me unless they were yelling right next to my ear! It was that loud! I have never seen so many fireworks in one place! This made New Years in America look like a candle and a 1/2 ! 

The next few day we have not been able to teach any lessons, but we have not stopped visiting people for Chinese New Year. At each home they have a table just foll of little cakes, cookies, treats, meats...anything you can think of. When you go in they just give you drinks & expect you to eat AND if you don't eat, it creates this awkward environment- so then you eat! It hasn't been hard to eat so much delicious food for so long- but it is getting hard on my body. I think I am starting to have some food based mood swings!? Is that possible? And my stomach is starting to have some complaints too! And New Year lasts another week & a half- how am I going to do it? I am getting Hong Boa's which are red envelopes of money, which the married & older Chinese people give out to young kids & single people who visit their houses. It is almost worse to reject those than the food- Chinese culture! 

We have an investigator on date for next Saturday to be baptized & it all looks really good! We are going to continue visiting them often this week & read the Book of Mormon with them- They love it when we do that! Even when we just drop by to visit, they will grab their Book of Mormon & say "Dushu" - which means study or read. I can't wait to see them enter the waters of Baptism. 

With Chinese New Year we are meeting a lot of new people & finding many less active members. This is a great time of the year!

When I get back to the States, Chinese New Year is definitely going to be a tradition in my family! It will be so great! 

Love you all & wishing you all the best in this Year of the Horse! 

Elder Hanks

The food tables set out in peoples homes for Chinese New Year

American football and my first exchange!

Last Monday we went to a field downtown where we brought America to Malaysia with some good old fashioned football. The field was kinda muddy, but it was so fun to get in a good work out and hit someone- not really hit someone but you know what I mean! We had a small crowd watch us and at one point some guys on motorcycles were doing crazy wheelies down the street next to us- one guy even had a passenger on the back doing wheelies! It was talent!

My companion has been called as District Leader, so that means we need to do exchanges. So Elder Earl went to another area with a Malay Elder, while I stayed in my area with his companion. I was so nervous because Elder Hobbs speaks Malay & no Chinese! That meant that the teaching would be on me - speaking all the Chinese, or Elder Hobbs could teach in Malay or English & then I would translate!

The first memorable appointment was with an investigator we had been working with for a while. We had them on date a while ago but they wasn't ready. As we met with them this time, we hoped to play the Restoration DVD for them & increase their knowledge of the Restoration, but they didn't have a DVD player. So we start reading out of the Book of Mormon. We read in 1 Nephi 10 where it mentions baptism and we discussed it a little bit. Then we finished reading the chapter and the investigator brings up baptism again and starts discussing that they couldn't get baptized because of their bad back. I then simply told them that they could be baptized bending forward. The investigator lit up! They said "What?!" They stand up and starts bending over saying "Like this? Like this?" And I keep saying "Yes, Yes!" They looked so excited. Their daughter is is a member and came home so the investigator shared with their daughter the new discovery about baptism! We now have this investigator on date to be baptized on the 15th of Feb!

We leave there & go to a members house who only spoke Chinese to teach another investigator. I know that the Spirit was there because for 1 1/2 hours we talked about so many different topics like prophets, priesthood keys and callings, why we wear white clothes for baptism, ect ... Elder Hobbs said some things & when the member translated for him, the investigating family said "Whoa! He is smart!" They loved Elder Hobbs!

Our next appointment was with another investigator who is struggling with keeping commitments. Other missionaries have tried to get this investigator to pray, so this was our intent too. This investigator spoke a little Malay so Elder Hobbs was able to help! We discussed prayer & asked if they would pray. No. We then thought, let's one of us say a simple prayer & the investigator would then say a simple prayer right after us. So Elder Hobbs told the investigator our idea & they said "Can!"  I prayed a simple prayer & the investigator prayed so beautifully - even though it was only 4 sentences long - It was soooo great!

Our last appointment was with an investigator who could speak English. We we were both able to visit with this person & they wanted us to go to their Methodist bible study class. Of course, their leader would not let us participate in the discussion. So we asked what they would be studying. They said "Romans 13, about the Authority of Jesus Christ." I just started to laugh inside & thought "There is no way this is just a coincidence."So we start to talk about the Restoration & how we have the Authority of Jesus Christ in our church just like Christ had when He was on the earth. We didn't have enough time to share it all before this guy starts smoking & becomes so distracting. The investigator had to leave but wants to continue the message next time! This person has so much faith & the gospel would be so good for them!

It's been a great week !
With Chinese New Year this week a lot of people won't be able to meet with us because of the serious preparations that take place. So many people have invited us over for Chinese New Year, I don't think we will have time to visit everyone who has invited us- we better make good use of our time! I'm going to get fat this week I know it! It's the year of the Horse. We have been told that during the 15 days of New Year, everyone's house is like an open house and you can just go and visit anybody you want!

Have a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!
Love,
Elder Hanks

Looks like Chinese New Year  food has already started for Elder Hanks!
With a cereal bowl that big, no wonder he's gaining weight!  (I really don't know what this is- oatmeal, rice?)

Look, no hands- or this is the way we ride our bikes, ride our bikes, ride our bikes....
 (Elder Hanks on the far left)
Hope they can navigate the round about like this! 

All about joy & patience with a pig leg thrown in there!

So last week I told you about an investigator who had told us his feelings towards us & how he believed that we lacked joy and patience. As I look back on the experience, it makes me smile however, because the man spoke the truth. Looking back on the lesson, I did lack patience & joy that day. So I took it upon myself to study this week all that I could about joy and patience. And I have to say that I really like the results so far!

We have been trying to get members, less active & investigators to read from the Book of Mormon daily because of how important it is to read and to follow the counsel from Elder Wilson & our training to get people to read & feel the Spirit of the Book. So an idea that come to us as we were brainstorming was to do a Book of Mormon reading chart & give it out to everyone. We printed a few off & began handing them out. So far, everyone who has received a copy of the Book of Mormon has been consistent in reading it daily! Sweet! We now have hope to grab on to this surge in reading & spread it though out the branch to strengthen testimonies of those who already have one & to strengthen testimonies of those trying to gain one.

The past couple of weeks, we have been traveling a lot & have not been to our regular lunch spot for a while. So when we had to to return, the people that work at our lunch restaurant were so happy to see us that they brought out a dish that was pretty good & said it was on the house! They wanted to make sure that we would keep coming back though, so the manager walked up to us & said that if we came back the next day he would cook us up a dish for FREE! What? Free food?! Why not? So the next day when we came back the waiter brings out 2 dished. One is a yam cake with vegetables & it tastes pretty weird. But the second dish was a PIG LEG- with the hoof still on it & everything! It was weird at first to try to pick at it thinking "Is there any meat on this thing?" but then when you found the meat it was pretty good. I was very grateful that we were able to have such a fun experience & the restaurant won my business!

So a funny experience I have to share includes some embarrassment on my part!  So the word for cry or tears sounds like  "ku - chi" and the word for pants sounds like  "ku -zi" , which to my ear is very similar. So we are at a members house & I am having a runny nose & watery eyes & a member asked me, in English if I was ok, so I said I was, but the member whose house we were at didn't understand English, so in Chinese I tried to say "If you see me crying, just know that I'm not, and that I am ok." Well instead of that it came out "If you see me wearing pants, just know that I'm not and I'm good." Hahaha!  We all had a good laugh, embarrassing as it was- good stuff!

Well, love you all, Happy Chinese New Year!
Elder Hanks

This is our church building with fireworks set off by some teenagers warming up for Chinese New Year!

Yam Cake & Pig Legs! Free Lunch! 

Walking the streets of Sibu  (Hanks on the left, Earl on the right)

Birthday and Zone conference week !

First of all, THANKS to everyone for all the birthday wishes! I even got a lot of cake from many different people here- the great Senior couples serving here, the branch and even a potential investigator! They were all great & so far I love being 19!

So our church attendance has started to go up here but is still not where would would like ti to be! We are working hard & are happy that another less active family is now active again. We also have an older couple who have starting coming to church & they have a lot to share during lessons- which is great!  Now we want to help their daughters get active too! A small miracle this week is that we found out that a new investigator lives right next door to one of the older couples daughters- so we can visit two investigators almost in one visit! haha! It will be great!

So we went to visit an investigator that likes the Elders to come & visit & teach his kids. I haven't really had a lot of experience yet with this investigator but we had just planned on reading out of the Book of Mormon for this visit. We were a little unprepared because of our traveling this week, that is no excuse, so we show up & the kids are all distracted & we really tried to pull a lesson together but it just wasn't flowing or working! So the investigator starts telling us how we lack patience, faith & most of all happiness! WOW ! I was stunned!  I told the investigator that I know I'm not perfect, and impatient and everything else (haha - and they agreed!) but that we knew someone who was & we pulled out a picture of Christ & I shared my testimony the best I could, we prayed & left. We felt pretty beaten up! Thinking back on it, I am grateful for this experience. It has given me a different outlook on how I can become a better person & missionary! We are determined to return next week & show this man, this wonderful man, what kind of missionaries we really are & that we really are happy!

Here's some pictures from our last weeks visit to Kuala Lumpur, East Malaysia and Singapore. We had an awesome Zone Conference with Elder Larry Wilson of the Seventy, who is in the Area Presidency for our mission. We stayed in Singapore for 3 days & I loved Singapore! I think one of my funnest things while I was there was when we were at the aquarium, & I knew my camera was waterproof, so I stuck it right in the water of the 'petting' pool & go some super cool pictures of some fish faces! It's a weird feeling to just stick your nice camera in the water & I also got some funny looks from people!

We all should be glad the country is watching out for robbers!
(Ammon is taking this picture- not in it, that's his companion is on the right) 

In Singapore at the biggest aquarium in the world,- hello Mr Stingray! 

Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur West Malaysia

holding up the Marina Bay Sand Towers!  There's an infinity pool on the top of that hotel!

(internet image so you could see the pool!) 

New Years, Petronas Towers and a speed boat ride

Jan 5, 2013

A new year brings some new beginnings! - Good & Bad !

First the bad things of the new year: Church time changes! Ahhhhh! In the previous weeks, our church attendance slowly began to increase over time & we were really happy with where our branch was heading! Then the new year changed our church time to 2:00pm. Yesterday we had a record low in sacrament meeting since I've been here in Sibu. We have our work cut our for us to help these members and less actives come back to church & make church a priority in their lives. Many feel it is too hard to come to church because their culture here is to work on Sundays.

On to the good things of the new year !
We held a New Years party on the 31st of December & my companion & I were in charge of a funny skit-
The only thing I have to say about this is that the 15 minutes we were up on the stage doing crazy things, I began to realize that American humor & Chinese humor is totally different!  It felt like we were up there for the looooongest time doing the weirdest things but they didn't think it was as funny as we did! We even tried a synchronized swimming routine! Yes - a synchronized swimming routine with weird leg formations & fake, plastered smiles on our faces! haha ! oh well, now it seems more embarrassing than funny - maybe we'll figure out Chinese humor for the next party!

(games at the New Years Eve Party)

The good part of the party was that some less active people came and brought some of their friends! Hopefully with the help of the branch we can start teaching & helping them as investigators! Win win situation!

We went to KL (Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia) from some training. It was a great training & being able to go the Petronas towers, some of the tallest towers in the world was so fun!

Petronas Towers

 The best part about my day today, (jan 6th Pday) was that we went to the small town of Kapit here in East Malaysia. Kapit is a small town where the only way to get there is to go to Sibu, and then take a 2 1/2 hour speed boat trip up the river. So we woke up at 4:00 THIS MORNING! to get to the 5:30 boat ride !
It was a great sight to see 14 missionaries all pile into this long speed boat. By the time we got to the town we only had a few hours to be there because we had to catch the 2:30 boat back.
We had made plans to meet with a member who was living there. They found us & we took a 20 minute van ride to get to this members long house.
A long house ir pretty much a very, very, very, very, very, very long house that has a whole bunch of little houses built into it.
     
We were able to visit with the member couple, they are so strong in their faith! They only spoke Malay so I didn't know what was being said, but I could feel that these members had such strong faith, if any other member had the type of faith these people had, there would be no such thing as less active members! And keep in mind, they have only been living in Kapit a few years & the church does not even have a branch here yet or anywhere near it! And yet, they have such a strong testimony of the gospel. They really inspired me to work hard & to do my best in my area. If I work hard enough to establish a faithful area in Sibu- maybe we can be sent up to Kapit to spread the gospel there!

I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ!
Happy late New Year and love you all!
Elder Hanks


PS - today (jan 7th) was Elder Hanks birthday! Hope he had a great day & a "thanks" shout out to Br. & Sis. Beus (a missionary couple in Sibu) for taking a cake over to him!