My Last Zone Conference!!

My last Zone Conference,
Pres. fist Zone Conference!

This past week we went to Singapore for zone conference and what an amazing experience it was. It was our mission president's first and my last, but despite whose it was and whatever-  there was a lot gained from it. I was able to share my testimony with the other missionaries and I had a tender moment  as I shared my feelings of my wonderful younger brother,  who just started his mission. I loved thinking about the fact that there are 2 Elder Hanks's in the world from the same family. What a blessing! 

So for P-day last week we had a badminton tournament in Singapore with all of the missionaries! It was great and  I was happy that Elder Lloyd and I  were able to tie for first in the tournament. There are a lot of really good missionaries here!  When I get home I am looking for the closest badminton tournament I can find in UT! 

There were a lot of miracles this past week so let's get to it:

While in Singapore we were able to find a lot of people to share the gospel with. I am sad that I do not get to follow up with them personally (because I'm going back to JB) , but sharing the gospel with them was the greatest feeling ever. One experience happened on Wednesday morning -  We were in Singapore's famous Botanic Garden studying under a pagoda when an older man asked if he could exercise. We said yes and he did his fun kung fu exercise thing. Once he was done,  he interrupted Elder Lloyd asking if he could take a picture of his name tag. This started a conversation which lasted for a while and ended with him taking a picture with each of us, exchanging phone numbers, and saying he had friends he would like us to meet. What a prepared son of God. I hope he will sincerely seek for the truth from the elders that are in Singapore.

I cannot remember if I mentioned this before, but we have an investigator that was on date to be baptized at the beginning of this month, but he was under age and his parents said no. We were sad to hear about it, but were excited when the opportunity came to go to his house and just meet his parents. We went with a cake the senior couple had made as a 'peace offering' and we excited to meet his mom. ( this was saturday night by the way). While there on Saturday, before we left, she motioned us to the back where her computer was. "I want to show you something." She said. We walked back not knowing what to expect, but were so excited when we looked at her computer screen to see a photo of her 3 kids with a birthday cake and 2 other missionaries with them!!!!!!! This picture was taken like 7 years ago and we had no idea!! We talked a little bit more about how she knew the other elders and we left on a high note!  The next day we went back and talked more and was so happy to hear that she wasn't opposed to her son being baptized anymore, but she just wanted him to understand more about what he's getting into and to be faithful and true to what he is joining. We were thrilled-  But we were even more excited when we heard her say that she too would like to learn and have a religion for herself and for her family!!!!! WHAT!!!!! She says she is really busy right now, but agreed to allow us to start coming over to teach her son in her home,  so she can listen to the lessons as well. We are super happy at the mercy of the Lord.

I was blessed this past week to be with one of my previous companions, Elder Lee (now Brother Lee) came over for a visit and actually helped us teach a lesson. It was a powerful lesson and it brought me back to some of the good old days of our teaching together in Sitiawan. He still has the missionary spirit about him. it was great seeing him. 

Things are going really well here in JB. I am loving it and we have quite a good amount of work in progress and to do. Couldn't ask for more!

Elders Pearce, Avery, Ebeling?, Lallemant, Hanks, Lloyd

Elders Lloyd, Pearce, Avery, Hanks

Elder Hanks

A Baptism in the dark!

Aug 2 2015 

Greetings from Singapore! It's my last zone conference in the mission and I am going to enjoy it with my awesome companion Elder Lloyd. I love him so much and he is awesome!  But we have had a great week with many miracles to share, so let's get down to it then...

Let's put the weekend in Chronological order to make it more fun:

Friday we had an appointment in the afternoon out in the east Masai area. We were needing to take a bus to the area so we walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus to come. As we were,  it was raining and then it began to rain harder and harder. Lightning was striking every 30 seconds and the rain came down harder than I have ever seen it come down. The bus came and I waved my arm out to stop the bus, but the driver just ignored us and drove on! There was a bus following right after that one, also going to our destination - but that driver ignored us too! We began to consider whether or not Heavenly Father was trying to tell us not to go to Masai today, but we said a prayer and right when we finished a bus pulled up! We got on and headed over. Once in Masai we saw that the rain storm had not yet reached there, so when the bus stopped next to a store I asked Elder Lloyd, "Do you think I should buy an umbrella?" He said, "Nah, we don't really need one. Unless you want one, then we can go buy one." I decided not to buy one. hahaha...we'll regret that later! We walked one minute towards the house when the rain storm caught up to us - and I'm guessing that on it's way over,  it was in a bad mood because the storm was worse in Masai than it was when we left the previous area! It was coming down in buckets so we took shelter under in an Indian temple. There I made a few calls while we waited for it to subside, but it never did. Finally we had to head back to our area in order to make it to another appointment and get ready for a baptism happening later that day. 

As we left the roof of the temple we huddled under Elder Lloyd's small umbrella, but I soon discovered it was worthless for two of us to be under that rag, so I screwed that and instead just resorted to jumping in the rivers of the roadside puddles. It was great. 

I was soaking wet when we got home and we had to change before teaching another investigator. We taught it outside our apartment complex in the lobby because the church  had no electricity..... yep... no power! We thought it would come back on by the time the baptism started at 7, but it did not.... and as people showed up we just had to pull chairs out of the chapel and pack them in the front lobby where the front door was giving us  light. But then as 7:00 came around and it got darker with more people coming we had to light candles and there was no place to sit!  We were a little worried about the candles because there was a lot of new people there for the baptism who were relatives,  and we didn't want to think we were a weird church with the whole candle ceremony or anything... haha! but it was great! There was a lot of people that came that really enjoyed the baptism and actually shared that they felt really good during the service! The baptism itself was great as Elder Lloyd baptized our 11 year-old investigator -  we all thought it was a memorable baptism because it was the first one in our newly made font and it was in the dark!!! What a memorable baptism.

Saturday: Due to our not visiting our investigator on Friday we took our branch president back with us on Saturday to visit her. It was a great visit and as we were leaving we thought of a less active member that lived on the same street that we thought we might just visit. We did and he was home. We had a great visit with him and he promised to come to church! It was a miracle because if we had ended up teaching her yesterday we would not have had any reason to go back to that area and we would have never been able to visit this less active member. We were so excited but I wasn't sure if he was going to come; he had made such promises before. Also on Saturday I got a little sick, but that didn't stop us from going out although I had an early night crash which was very nice. 

Sunday: The less active we visited on Saturday, came to church and we had a lot of people there. It was great and our less active member was fellowshipped really well. We hope he'll come back next week. One scary thing for me was that the branch pianist didn't come on Sunday... so I had to play! I was so nervous, but I did well enough. It's my goal now to be able to play all the hymns in the hymn book after my mission! 

If I were to answer the question, "What's one thing you did before the mission you are grateful for?" I would say piano. It has been a HUGE blessing on my mission and I have been able to use this gift to bless many people's lives. I just want to give a shoutout to my parents and say thanks for putting up with all my 'pouts' about the piano and encouraging me to continue to play. I hope to make sure it doesn't go to waste. 

Well, that was my week. It's been a great one. I'm in Singapore so I don't have too much time today, but I am sharing my last testimony. I'll record it and send it sometime. 

Love you all, Elder Hanks

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