One Christmas down, one to go!

I am celebrating my first Christmas in Sibu, East Malaysia! While back home there is probably lots of snow, here we have rain, but fortunately there is not too much of it!

So Christmas morning I woke up to cook some delicious Apple French Toast for our apartment. Unfortunately the only French bread we could find was the kind that already had garlic on it... haha.. I used it anyway! It turned out great for using garlic bread! My mom usually fixes Apple french toast back home every Christmas morning so it made me feel a little closer to home.

We opened presents from our families & from the "secret Santa" we did between the elders in our apartment. I gave my companion a sweet yellow watch because yellow is his favorite color & I gave a saurong to another elder. (I'll have to send a picture of that so you know what I'm talking about)  My companion gave me a good lookin t-shirt  but it's too small so I'll wear it as my workout shirt so that it makes me look more buff!

I got mostly food from my family- which I'm so glad they did! I didn't realize how much I miss simple american food like granola!

Practicing for the Christmas party

We had tried to go out Christmas eve to do some American style Christmas caroling. We rode out with 4 other Elders to an area & knocked on some gates, but not one person came out! They all looked out their windows (probably got sacred with 6 americans outside) & then went away! We tried for 2 hours & finally gave up but with smiles on our faces! It is amazing to see how different things are here!

Last night we had an activity to watch a Church movie with some members. We watched Ephraims Rescue, which I hadn't seen yet. It has a lot of power in it & I really felt the spirit- I loved it! Great movie!

I love knowing Chinese! We had a young woman who was telling the Elders how cute they were but none of the Elders could understand her, but I could! I guess with the Chinese girls in the area, I am ranked #2 as the most handsome Elder! hahah ! Sweet!

Love you all, Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Playing cups! So Fun!

Everyone takes their shoes off at the church - for everything!
I love having church in my socks! 

Service project for a sister, cleaning her windows, which as you can see, was very difficult!
(Thanks to  Sis. Beus for taking all these pictures of  Elder Hanks!) 

 

PBS TV segment showed this weekend

Ammon's segment for the PBS Religion & Ethics showed this weekend. His 'interview' didn't make the cut but you do see him & some of his MTC district on film a couple of times during the first half of the story!

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365138694/

Mormon Missionary Expansion is the title of the segment shown Dec 18, 2013

Tri-language Christmas party & I think we had spies!

Hey!
Even though Christmas is just around the corner & a lot of you are probably enjoying the "winter wonderland" - I'm am enjoying my  "wet & wetter wonderland"!
This past week we had a branch Christmas party with all 3 of the Sibu branches! It was crazy chaos having Chinese, Malay & Iban people all trying to enjoy a Christmas spirit!  It was great - next time try that at your ward party having it in 3 different languages! A lot of people came though, including a lot of potential investigators & we hope to be able to follow up & start adding more investigators to our teaching pool!
One of our current investigators is on date to be baptized on January 4th but she has hurt her back pretty bad. She has continued to progress & has come to church so we really didn't have any concern until we didn't see her at church this week. We hope her back isn't a bigger problem & we are praying for her daily & I feel confident that she will be ready by January!

Guess which Christmas tree was decorated by the Iban branch ?!

a branch member made the ornaments for their tree

We have been working considerably hard to increase the activity of he less active. We have been constantly visiting this older couple with several daughters & they are all members but aren't very active. So when they come to church the increase our branch attendance to 45 people! Which has been the highest number since my companion came to Sibu, which when he started the branch was like at 15! So that was awesome!
We hope this family will stay open hearted & if they come, they will be a great addition to our branch!

So this past week 3 people that no one has ever seen before came to our family home evening! We were excited & gave them a tour of our church. We all felt the spirit strong & we were excited to follow up with them. Later in the week though, we found out that the Methodist church is sending spies to church to see what we are doing & what our beliefs are! Haha, I guess we need to be more aware of who comes into the church asking weird questions like how many people are coming to our church....!

Well, I can't wait for Christmas. We are doing Secret Santa gifts for the other Elders in our apartment. I'm really excited to give gifts but also excited to receive some too! I think it will help me feel not so far away from home. Most Chinese people really don't love Christmas like we do, so not a lot of them have an actual Christmas tree in their home.
I have lots of Asians staring at me & its hilarious, but it makes it easier for me to approach them because they will actually keep their attention on me. The kids over here are hilarious too & make everything even better!
Wish you all a Merry Christmas & enjoy a  white one too for me!
Elder Hanks

homesick & monsoon season

This is what monsoon weather looks like !
(I don't think his shoes are going to last very long BUT glad he has a helmet! - & wears it! ) 

First of all, my 2nd Christmas package made it though customs so I will have 2 presents to open, one from you and one from Amanda! Thanks! I'm excited to see what you sent!

2nd- Malaysia is wet! It rains here so often! Pretty much every day. Last week we went to a burger place for some food, which is run right outside the owner's house. So as we pulled up, we saw that their whole front yard was flooded. This is how it goes in monsoon season!

Ok, so I have been feeling pretty homesick this last week.
Our investigator that we were so excited about, who seemed so promising, informed us after our first lesson with him, that he was going out of town until April!!! Who does that..... besides missionaries! So we were pretty disappointed we won't be seeing him for a long time. But we are hopping that we gave him a great experience with the church so when he comes back he will still have some interest.

I have been in SMS-ing (mission version of messaging someone)  the Chinese guy we handed a Book of Mormon to on our flight to Singapore.  I asked him if I could send the missionaries over to his house in Hong Kong. We'll see what he says! All I know is his first name so hopefully he will respond back!

We had some time on our hands this week so we began calling people from the "potential" list. We called several people- either getting no response or they say they wouldn't come to church because of work & stuff. So on Sunday we went to our normal meetings & had just arrived home when the other elders in our apartment got a phone call that an extremely less active member decided to go to church. For them, this was a miracle! So they were so excited, the left for their Sacrament meeting.
I was so discouraged and was homesick, tired & bummed out, it was hard to want to do anything. A minute later we got a phone call from a sister, who we had apparently called earlier in the week, inviting her to come to church (she said she was busy-  when Chinese people say they are busy, I think they really aren't)
anyway - she was AT our church!  We were "WHAT?!" She said she was there right now, so we told her to wait & we ran right over to the church.  We found her waiting for the other branches meeting to start.
As we talked to her, she said she wasn't planning on coming to Church but her friend invited her at the last minute.  We look over &  the friend of hers was the  "miracle" & "extremely inactive" member that the other Elders had  ran to go meet!  She had noticed the address of the church was the same address we had given her earlier in the week- so she called us! We were able to talk to her for a while & gave her a Book of Mormon. We had been short of our goal of how many copies of the Book of Mormon we wanted to pass out by 1 - so now we had meet our goal! We were able to set an appointment to see her next Sunday, so we are excited to see where this goes!

I miss you all & hope you have a fun Christmas Season!

Weird, interesting week with a dead next door neighbor

Hey everyone! Happy late Thanksgiving!

So this week has been very interesting & different! 

I never told you about my companion - it's Elder Earl! The cool thing is that I met his parents when I was at the Hill Cumorah Pageant this summer! 

I got my first package from you & loved the Chopsticks! and the kids will love the Pez dispensers!  (this was his christmas package! not a Welcome to Sibu package!- good thing a 2nd package was sent  later or the kid would have nothing to open on Christmas!) 

So first, the random guy who came to church last week has become an investigator & looks pretty promising right now. We are hoping to teach him & prepare him for a "white" christmas baptism! Our Zone has 21 people on track to be baptized by the 21 of December so we are hoping we can do something with our investigator this month too!

Thanksgiving was great! We biked to a senior couples apartment for turkey & such! It was so good & reminded me of home. On the way there it was POURING rain & the side walks are made with tile! (not a great idea in the first place) On on the way there, 2 elders that we were riding with slid & burned! They were ok but it was crazy funny to watch it happen, like in slow motion funny! This is the kind of mission experience I thought I would have! Biking in monsoon season! 

Since being here, I have tried a bunch of food & am getting used to talking to a bunch of random people and I am loving things here in Sibu! We are starting to have more & more people become more interested in the church. A lot of people here actually know who we are. We often ask people, "Have you ever seen people like us before?" & they go "Yeah, riding the bikes around!" Yep! that's who we are - the guys that just constantly ride our bikes around!  

A cool thing about Sibu, is the night market downtown! There is this parking lot that they use during the day for businesses & stuff and then every night, all these Chinese & Malay people come out of nowhere & set up these shops and sell anything! T-shirts, food - pig snout!,  purses, souvenirs, .. We had a member with us & bought some kind of gummy food thing. It looked pretty good so I tried it. I don't know what it was or what it was filled with but this weird bitter-sour soy sauce stuff goes all over my hand & it was terrible!  

We have been serving a member of our branch by pulling the weeds in her yard. During our weed pulling, her brother, who isn't a member pulls up & starts talking to us. We were really excited to talk to him ! After a while he looked  at me & said" You know, you look like Eminem." I was like "What?!" He said,  "Yeah, yo do, just more clean cut & good looking." Haha! I have never been called that - but ok!  Then later, when I turned to look at him again, he said, "whoa, from the side you look like that American Pie Guy." ( I don't even know who that is, so if you do, let me know !)  We were able to talk to him later about the church & we got him to let us call him & set up a time to come & teach him! Except, I'm not quite sure if he was drunk or not! haha! oh well! 

So the weird & sad thing about this week! We come home from church Sunday & find this guy outside our house & another guy with him.  (So our house is like one house split into 2 different living spaces)  So one of the guys starts to ask us about our building neighbor & when was the last time we saw him. We have never met him or even seen him, so we don't know who or what they are talking about. One of the guys is his friend & our building neighbors wife had called him to go check on his friend, our neighbor. So the friend eventually goes into the house & finds that the guy had taken his own life by breathing the fumes from some coals he had lit. So we are there & the friends call the police & for 2 hours we watched the police do their thing, they asked us a few questions, cleared out the "apartment" & it was just so weird. Here we are missionaries with a message of joy & we lived right next door to someone who probably needed it! Crazy. So later we took a picture of Christ over to his family, who were all gathering at his apartment. Crazy. 

So we are trying to get the members wanting to come to FHE more. So since it's Christmas time we think we are going to teach about service & the value it has. So we are thinking of making a small christmas tree & over the next few weeks, for every act of service the members do for someone else, they get to add a decoration to it. Then we will present our service tree at the Christmas party we are having in a few weeks to show how much service they have done. What do you think? We were trying to make FHE fun so if you have any ideas for a powerful, spiritual lesson, let me know! 

Anyway, hoping & praying for my first baptism! 

It's still hot over here & I hope you guys are enjoying the snow if you have it yet- because I won't for 2 years!

Love you all & miss you too! 

Elder Hanks

Airport Missionary work & My first area is.....?

(excerpts from Elder Hanks' first email from Singapore:)
I have arrived! First I want to tell you of some of the great things that happened BEFORE I even got to my mission!

So we get to the airport & me & my companion, Elder Flynn decide to say a quick prayer & see if we could find anyone to talk to. We saw an older couple sitting next to a gate waiting for their flight, so we decided to talk to them. We struck up a conversation with them & discovered that they were members, so that was a bummer... (for brand new missionaries..!) BUT we told them that we were going to Singapore & they knew a lady that lived there so we got a referral out of it ! So I can't wait to see what happens with that!

After they left, it was time to call my family!!! I loved talking to them! Outside the windows of the airport I could actually see the Bountiful temple that I went to with my family, so I felt like I was that much closer to my family while I was talking to them! We talked for about an hour & 20 minutes, which was great!

After I hung up, my companion was still talking to his family, so I noticed a lady walking around looking for someplace to sit. There were plenty of seats open, so I said a silent prayer that she would end up sitting on the bench of seats that I was on. So I strategically scooted over 2 seats, so I would be close, but no too close... you know what I mean ! And in an answer to my prayer, she sat down just where I wanted her too!
I now I'm thinking how can I start a conversation with her? I see this stuffed monkey key chain on one of her bags so I commented on it & it turns out that it is from a music band that she plays for & they play gigs in like churches! So I ask her more about it & learn that she is from Spain, living in LA & was a Catholic. So we talk about her church & the role it has had in her life (which seemed more cultural than religious) when she asked "So what makes your church different?" I just thought "Oh Man! Thank you Heavenly Father!" So I asked her if she knew about Joseph Smith & the restoration of the Church. She was so fascinated that a 14 yr old boy could know that a church was true & that I could too at 18! So we read Mosiah 10:4-5 & then I asked her if she would be willing to read the Book of Mormon & she said she would & I gave her one! Sweet!! I haven't even left Utah & I have already placed a Book of Mormon!

So we get to LA & call my family to tell them what had happened back in SLC. As I am finishing up my conversation, an airport employee walks up to me & my companion & asks "You believe in Jesus Christ right?"  So I say to my mom & dad " Mom, Dad, I gotta go!"  So it turns out he saw a companionship of missionaries last week & thought we were the same ones, so that's why he talked to us so straightforward! Haha! Found out he was Christian & had been looking into other churches. He didn't have time to talk, since he was working, & didn't want his boss to see him talking in case he could get fired, so my companion talked briefly about the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ & Joseph Smith . We gave him a Book of Mormon with a pass along card!  TWO BOOKS DOWN!

So now we are boarding our flight to Hong Kong & we notice that there is someone sitting in between me & my companion! So we decide that who ever it is, is going to get a real serving of the gospel! Turns out it is a Chinese guy! So using our newly acquired MTC Mandarin Chinese, we end up talking a good amount of time with him! (the flight was like 16 -19 hours long or something!)  He brought up an experience of watching a religious TV program & how it sparked a little religious interest in him. It seemed that he was really interested in our Book of Mormon. So since I had a Chinese one with me, I had him read the introduction & he really liked it. He later mentioned that he should give the book back to me but we insisted that he keep it! He was so surprised  & so grateful, he took that book off the plane clinging it to his chest!

So there are 3 miracles when the Lord helped & answered our prayers!

So I have been assigned to serve my first area in the country of Malaysia, so I am writing you from SIBU MALAYSIA! Look it up on Google Maps !

Yesterday in church I was introduced to the 39 people who were attending that day! It was kind scary for me to see so few people there! Take the first 2 rows of probably churches in UT and get rid of all the other rows of people -  thats what it looked like to me! We have a good amount of members- just not active!
There was a guy there that was new, no one had ever seen him before- he was just walking past the church & thought he should come in! We invited him & he stayed for gospel principles & priesthood ! We set up an appointment to see him on Thurs.
In the MTC they stress the importance of members & so I hope we can find a bank of strong members to work with, but it looks like that is our focus- to reactivate the less active! My companion said that this branch really depends on the missionaries to keep things going!

This mission is going to be hard, but I am grateful for all your support! I would LOVE to hear from you!
WRITE ME LETTERS!
Love,
Elder Hanks

Leaving on a jet plane...!

Well, this is my last official full day here at the MTC in beautiful, snowy Provo! My experience here has been a perfect one and I am so glad that I accepted the call to serve.

This past week has been about preparation, departure devotionals and packing! What a stressful week & I'm not even done packing yet!

Last night I said good-bye to 2 elders who have been in my district the whole time I have been here. I know that they are already busy with the work the Lord has called them to do. But before they left we had to celebrate the day! So, thanks to several of our great moms, the the spirit of the other elders, we had a farewell bash that we have all been dreaming of for the past 9 weeks!

It started out with ALL the food being gathered in the hall for all to gather & eat! We had quite a crowd gather & our party began! Everyone was enjoying cakes, chips & dip, cider ... but they did not expect a pinata! And not just any pinata... a minion pinata! Everyone was so excited, but we didn't have anything to hit it with. We used to have a mini bat but that went missing a few weeks ago. Fortunately an Elder let us borrow his toy Thor Hammer. We all felt like we should be in the next Avengers movie! Candy was all over & people were having the time of their lives !
We even pulled out some bubbly cider & headed to the the showers where we shook it up & opened the lid & sprayed everyone! We partied from 9:45 til 10:30 so we were all in bed on time too ! I really don't know how  that worked out, especially since we got everything clean up by then too, so go team !

So a tradition that has been adopted by the Mandarin speakers is to take some planks of wood & to record our history in the MTC on them- we call them "the plates". We have plates from previous elders & now we are writing down a few events that transpired while we were here, including Nerfridays & our record time in setting up the auditorium for devotionals! It is really cool to look at them & think that other people will read them & know who we are & some of the things we did. I now understand a little bit of how Nephi & all the other prophets were feeling when they wrote on their plates.

So setting up the auditorium for devotionals.. for the past 9 weeks, we had the service project of setting up the gym to seat everyone for evening devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. My district was in charge of the podium & stage part where the speakers & leaders sit. At first we just took our time but eventually it turned into a race against time! So this past Sunday we got our fastest time ever-  7min. 30 sec. ! We had so much fun & a great attitude about doing it, the staff lady over it decided to take all our names & start an MTC race log to see who could set the stage up the fastest! How cool is that that our district got to start a new MTC tradition! So maybe when I'm 50 I'll come back here & see if our names are still there!

So I leave the MTC Tues at 12:30 and begin my travels to Singapore! I am so excited to go!  I am so blessed to have been here in the MTC the time that I have! I have made so many friends & have ran into old ones too. The Love of our Savior helps us to so easily bond with those around us, even though they may be from another country or speak a different language.  I can't wait to get out in the field!

Lastly, we heard from the PBS Religion & Ethics show and all they said is that our episode will probably air sometime during the 2nd week of December.

Thanks for all your support in writing to me while I was in the MTC !  Keep the letters coming!

Tahitian Sisters who gave Ammon a puka shell necklace before leaving- a Tahitian tradition