100 phone numbers and a baptism!

Elder Pearce, Elder Avery, Pres. & Sis. Simmons, Elder Lloyd 

This has been a great week and although it feels like a long, long week, a lot has happened. First was that President Simmons came for a visit to us in our apartment and we were happy to have him. For the other three elders it might have been their first time meeting him; mine was in Singapore last month at MLC. But we received great counsel from him and his wife. We all love them so much and they have a great love for all of us. Everyone is excited to have them. I even heard Sister Simmons went on exchanges with some sisters in East Malaysia and that included riding bikes and all - cool!!!!!

We were contacting a lot this past week and using our bikes more than before. I really have come to enjoy contacting. One miracle was we were about to finish contacting in an area because it was getting dark and on the way back Elder Lloyd (what a man)turned to me and said, "Elder, let's knock this one last house." We did and a younger boy saw us and called out to the mom or whoever, "There are white people outside!" (in Chinese of course). There was some rustling in the back when a mom came to the door followed by an older woman. The younger one asked, "Anything?" But then the older woman pushed her aside and said, "Hello Elders!" We were both stunned. We asked how she knew the elders and she said with a little chuckle, "I am a member!" This woman was a member from Singapore but had been in England for the past little while. While there, she could not find the church there and had been praying for a chance to find the elders, but never did; until now ! We found her in a friend's house in Malaysia! Crazy! She thought it was a miracle and was so happy to see us. She told us she would be going back soon. I told her my awesome brother was going to England for his mission and she got really excited. I exchanged with her my email and she is hoping to go back to England in a few months and find the younger Elder Hanks! Cool stuff.

We made a vision for us here in JB and it has really helped us be motivated and so part of our vision is to get 100 phone numbers in this transfer. We are stoked and like my awesome new companion always says, "LETS GO!!!!!" hahaa! We are loving JB! 

We are expecting a baptism this upcoming Friday and hopefully everything will go smoothly; that's the day we usually teach English class. Teaching is really something I like and helps me feel really good, engaged with the people and helpful.

The lesson crunch of the week was teaching an investigator for the last time before he goes to Ireland, about the temple. We felt we should talk about the Holy Ghost first and then the temple. It took us 2 lessons in two days, one right after the other ! (Friday night and then again on Saturday night) to more fully help them understand the blessing and magnitude of having a temple and what it means for our families. It was so cool and the Spirit was so strong. In fact we could all taste it and made me cry. It was the first time I have cried in a while, but the Spirit was really strong.

I discovered something about my purpose as a missionary and it happened as I was teaching the lesson I talked about above. The reason I came on a mission is because I want my family and all my spiritual brothers and sisters to live with me forever. I told my investigators we were teaching that we really loved them and wanted the best for them. Then I asked them, "One day us elders will go back to America and you might move away. We may never see each other again. But what if I gave you a choice of being with us for 2 years or eternity, what would you want?" As I asked that it seemed to bring the Spirit and it clicked in their heads the blessing of eternity.

It's been a great week. I love you all and I want to wish younger Elder Hanks the best in his final preparation for his mission. I'm sure you did great with your farewell talk yesterday! Can't wait to hear it! 

Elder Hanks

Ps... Return travel plans arrived today (friday 731/2015)  for Elder Hanks return...
Wednesday Oct 7th at 6:49pm!

Our apartment doubled in size!

On Monday Elder Baer packed up all of his stuff, and Tuesday morning left..... I almost cried, but luckily no one saw my teary eyes. As he was driving away in the taxi Elder Benson--the senior couple missionary--said to me, "There goes a great man." I replied, "One of the greatest men I have ever met." 

Trying to make Asian eyes....did we pass? 

So long Elder Baer....

Tuesday was a day I just got to follow the senior couple because I had no one else to follow or be with. That was a fun experience and I am very grateful for all that they do for us missionaries. They are the greatest and they helped with some lessons that were great! We are having some great success here in JB!

the day I was companionless......

I have 2 miracles to share for this week's work. First has to do with one progressing investigator who wants to be a missionary, and the other has to do with working with members.

1. We are currently teaching a 16 year-old young man and he has been learning for about a month. Ever since he has come to our English class and we introduced Jesus Christ to him he has been progressing so fast!!! In this last week's lesson he brought a friend and that was great because we were planning on sharing with them the Atonement of Jesus Christ. But before we got into the lesson too much we wanted to see what our investigator's understanding of the plan of salvation was, because that is what we taught last time. After we asked him to give us a summary of the plan-  he sat up in his chair, turned to his friend and proceeded to give one of the most amazing summaries of the plan of salvation in under 2 minutes I have ever heard and he didn't even miss a single detail concerning the plan!!  Elder Lloyd, it was his  first lesson in JB,  was just blown away and we were just so impressed! This investigator's on date and later in life will be a great missionary! Love it!  

2. On Tuesday, after Elder Baer left and before Elder Lloyd arrived, I made an appointment with a former investigator family, but needed a companion to come with me. So I called a member in our branch and he agreed to come with me. On the way to the appointment,  I was guiding him to this house and he would say, "I think I have been to this house before." We arrived at the house and he said, "Yep! I've been here before." Once inside we bore powerful testimony of the gospel and the peaceful feelings we get from coming to church, etc. The Spirit was really powerful and after leaving the lesson on the way home the member turned to me and said, "You know, it was almost a year ago that I came to this house to share the gospel with this family and I haven't thought about them for a while, it was only until Yesterday that the thought of this family came back to me. Then you called me to go with you to teach them... weird." I thought it was a miracle from Heavenly Father and was so cool!!!!

The JB Chinese Elders... Hanks, Pearce, Lloyd & Avery

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Elders running late for church! 

                                                                                          

So now there are 4 elders here in the house and they are all awesome! Elder Avery doesn't stop making me laugh with his funny lines and phrases. Elder Pearce won't eat any food I try to give to him,  so he is way to courteous. And Elder Lloyd is such I stud I can't believe the Lord would bless me so much! Elder Lloyd is a hard worker and is from Bountiful. I already love him so much and he never stops being grateful for things, even trees... I have found that his being grateful is one of the greatest traits about him, he never stops being grateful for what he has and what he can do! He is awesome and I am looking forward to working more with him in the next couple of weeks!

I am loving this life and time that I have as missionary. I need to be more grateful for these kinds of things more. 

Elder Hanks

Departing Elder Baer...with miracles though!

July 13,  2015

 

I hope the last week of my mission can be as good as it was for Elder Baer's last week! This week was a great week full of miracles and blessings. So let's name a few, shall we?

To start, it's a standard of excellence that we as missionaries find 2 new investigators every week in order to continue to find new people to bring unto Christ and keep the funnel filled. All week we were trying to find new people and meet with previously-met potentials, but no one would meet with us. Sunday(the last day of the week) came around and we were worried we wouldn't hit our goal. Luckily we had many investigators come to church and 2 of them were Indian investigators we have been teaching for not too long. We asked them if we could come over and share with them more about the gospel. They agreed and so we went. As we entered their house-  with some members,  it was literally a miracle as 2 sisters of the investigator (who came to church)  came out from the back room.! We met with them and shared the message of the Restoration. The Spirit was very strong and they all agreed to allow us to come back again and share more. 2 New investigators!!!!! we were so happy to achieve our goals.

With Elder Baer leaving many of the members had taken us out for lunch and invited us to go to dinners with them. We were very full this week, but the members here are so awesome and I love them so much! The branch here is just so awesome and I love being with every single one of our members.
    We had zone meeting this past week and for the zone activity we went bowling. I shocked myself with the highest score and many strikes. I had no idea since it has been awhile since I've practiced my bowling skills.....!  But Zone meeting itself was a great experience where we all had a great council in which we talked about our new mission president and we are all really excited about serving with him. And with 3 months left with my new companion.... ELDER LOYYD... it is going to be a party. I am so excited to be his companion, although I am sad Elder Baer is leaving. With the new transfers though, we are having 2 new elders come into the JB area with us. So the house will again be 4 chinese Elders! I'm really excited about this and hope to do my best in helping 3 elders get oriented to the massive JB area. Wish me luck....  

We are having many investigators coming to church now and they are loving church. We are hoping to help them continue to progress towards baptism. It's a big topic with all of our investigators so we are pushing them to continue towards it. JB is awesome!!!!  

Elder Hanks

Celebrating the 4th & our new mission president

This week was a great week of celebrating our amazing freedom and  welcoming of our new mission president. Great things are happening in our area too! 

On Thursday we went over to Singapore to our mission's Missionary Leadership Council where we met our wonderful new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Simmons. Of course we are sad that President and Sister Mains are gone and we will miss them, but we are loving having a new mission president. He is great and I love him especially because he served in the Taiwan mission when he was younger - SO HE SPEAKS MANDARIN! Well, only a little bit. He and his wife are also trying to learn Malay too, so that is great of them to do that so they can speak to all members of Malaysia and Singapore. MLC itself was really inspiring and we are going to have a great zone meeting this week about becoming master teachers who teach by the power of the Holy Spirit. The mission is in good hands. 

After we came back,  celebrating our country came and we were fortunate to have a great 4th of July lunch with the senior couple who live in the same complex as we do. In our apartment we have this little green want-to-be grill that we decided to try cooking with. Even with all our eagle scout skills and flammable deodorants we could find,  the charcoals wouldn't catch on fire! So we just went back to the stove. The meal was so good and we talked about the blessings of being a citizen of such a great country. Go AMERICA! 

Miracles from this week are many and mostly about baptism. We have been trying so hard for the past few weeks to get our investigators on date. We weren't having too much luck and we just kept trying our best. One young investigator whose mom is a member wants to be baptized, but when we asked his dad he said, "Only when you are 21." This kid was only 11. But the mom talked to his dad and his dad changed his mind! He'll be baptized at the end of this month! 

More miracles include this younger 16 year-old. We started teaching him last week and we shared with him the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to pray. The next time we saw him he was so happy and excited to tell us that he did pray and he felt an amazing peace and joy. He said he never felt that kind of joy before and he wants to be baptized! So cool! 

Last one was we started teaching two 19 year olds last week and like the 16 year-old above, we shared the Restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon. We caught up with them later to ask how their reading was going. They reported that they did read and understood a lot. One of the boys said that by reading the Book of Mormon he feels that he is coming closer to something that he should know. We were both blown away and they are both wanting to continue to learn.

We have some great investigators who are learning and we are looking forward to some great baptisms at the end of this month and next month too. It will also be in a great new font that is being built in the chapel! 

The members here are great too! Our branch mission leader is so great and in this week's testimony meeting he was the first of many other members to run up onto the stand to share a powerful testimony. A great spirit was felt in sacrament and everyone seems really excited about coming to church. The church is so true and I love being a missionary! 

Love from Malaysia!

Elder Hanks

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!