Transfers & sneaky plans

There is not much to report this week except my companion, Elder Geilman, is leaving and going to my first area - Sibu!!! I am so sad to say good-bye to him- he is such an inspirational guy and a church doctrinal library! He is so incredible and I am confident he will continue to be a successful missionary where ever he goes. I am proud to have served along side with him as his companion and I am anxious to see his future successes as a missionary. 

The work is Miri is slowing down a little bit, but we hope with the Chinese New Year opportunities will be opening up that we can find people to share the gospel with by going into their homes and allowing them to feel the power of the Spirit. I'm very excited for Chinese New year because it seems like for 2 weeks the doors of all the Chinese people just open to almost anybody and it's almost like a free passage in the door!  So we are hoping to go around, simply meeting as many people as we can,  so when the fireworks begin we will have already met everybody in Miri and then we can come back for Chinese New Year and maybe actually get in some houses. It'll be great and I feel really sneaky for doing it -  But anything goes when it comes to teaching the gospel! Am I right?!

Pictures of the zone all together with our zone t-shirts and hanging out on the beach

Love you all and have a happy week!

Elder Hanks

Picture week!

Not much to report this week so enjoy some pictures!  Everyone is getting ready for Chinese New Year and I have a feeling it will be a huge celebration here in Miri so hopefully we will both still be in Miri to enjoy it! Transfers are coming up next week! Elder Geilman and I are working hard to find new investigators this week to fill our teaching pool and we are praying for solid investigators. Wish us luck!

PS - I got a ton of mail this week (probably because of my birthday!)  Thanks everyone for the birthday cards & writing to me! 

Double Birthday Week!

It was a wonderful week this week with Elder Geilman's AND my birthday. Member's and investigators helped us have a wonderful birthday week and I really did enjoy it. A member went out and bought me a black chicken. I don't really know how they do it-  but apparently the chicken is just naturally black- So that's kind of cool! Also, I not only got a candle for my cake, but I got a CANDLE for my birthday. So i lit it up outside.

I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes!  You are all the best and so nice!

It was a lot of people's birthday this week so I

made some cupcakes for an investigator because it was his birthday and I just want to say that my character drawing with frosting has improved so much since I've been on my mission!! yeah? It was just a day full of cake and ice cream. What more could you ask for?Well,  It was also the day of teaching our free English class and we didn't really have a lot of people come. We were a little disappointed & wondered why - Then we took a second look at our flyers and we realized why we probably didn't have that many people come. Maybe next week.

Is it the misspelled word or that the flier is already in English
for those who can't read English yet.....!  

Growth in Miri is going great. We are planning on extending the hours from 2 to 3 like normal church and people seemed pretty excited about it! We are too because that will hopefully bring a greater understanding within the branch now and greater activity later!  And with the Chinese New Year coming up we will hopefully be finding more people to teach as we are constantly getting people inviting us over to their house for Chinese New Year. Everything is turning red....EVERYTHING! Happy soon to be Chinese New Year

From the now 20 year-old,

Elder Hanks

I think some one got a new birthday tie....?

Elder Geilmans Birthday was this week too! 

Happy New Year, Happy Baptism, Happy Birthday! what a week!

With the start of the new year comes new focuses and dreams that we hope to accomplish. One of my dreams came true this past week with the baptism of our most golden investigator of all time! He was so much fun to teach and would always be anxious to learn more and more! He bore a great testimony of the church and it's teachings. Elder Geilman was able to help him be baptized and I was able to give a talk at his baptism. We are so happy to have him and he will probably receive the Aaronic priesthood next week!  We are really anxious for him to continue to learn, but it will be no problem for him because he has talked to us a lot about how he wants to help lead in the church and help other people grow in the gospel. We are now going to teach his wife and his daughter. Isn't that just the best? Teaching a family now! They are such an awesome family! The gospel blesses so many lives! 

So after his baptism we found out that the pump, that drains the water was broken, so Elder Geilman and I spent the day emptying the font bucket by bucket. It only took us an hour and a half so I'm impressed with how quick we did it.

We were also able to spend our new year's at his house for steamboat which is basically they have a soup in the middle that's really hot. Then they have a bunch of meats and vegetables on the side in bowls. Then you just take whatever you want to eat: chicken, beef, lettuce, mushrooms, etc., and you stick it in the soup for a little bit. Once cooked you take out and eat it! So good!!! But surprisingly there weren't that many fireworks. Just a few. All the Chinese people say they're saving up for the Chinese New Year. That's going to be so epic.

My black year is over-  the black year is the full calendar year in a missionary's mission that he completely spends in serving the Lord. So I left in Sept., so my black year started Jan 2014 thru Dec 2014. It's so weird because I don't like saying I'm going home this year. It's too weird. And I also think it's weird saying that I'm going to be 20 years old. That just makes me sound old. We found out who our new mission president is going to be. The church will be announcing it sometime in Jan in the Church News so you guys back home can look for that. That's another weird thought.

Nothing like hot chocolate when its a rainy 80 degrees outside!

It was pouring rain a lot this past week so Elder Geilman and I would spend our time out in the dark, rainy, nights and surprise visit less active members and it was perfect! Due to the chinese people's dislike of rain it's most likely that you will find less active members at home when it's raining. Then we would come home to drink hot chocolate to warm our not really cold, but just wet bodies. Now we are going to be doing this more often because it works! We had some less actives come to Saturday's baptism which was so great!  And we had a record attendance in Sacrament meeting of 46! The highest it's ever been in the branch. We're growing!!! We love the people and working here in Miri! 

With the branch growing we are now going to have to figure out the biggest problem we have: language barriers. About 50% of our branch speaks/reads only English while the other 50% are the same in Chinese. So we are maybe going to improve our branch through making 2 classes for Sunday school. We hope that this means great things for our young branch.

I'm loving the mission so far. It's making me stretch so much and making me learn. I love these sorts of situations to figure out. I just need time, faith, and a lot of patience. 

This is my last letter as a 19 year old. Next letter I'll be ..... 20... ew.

Happy New Year!

Elder Hanks

Our awesome Miri "White" Christmas!

The Chinese Winter Festival was last Monday was last week and the Chinese tradition is to cook a glutonose rice. It's like a boiled flour rice thing (don't know how else to describe it..) and it's really good! We tried to boil a big pot full but the water wasn't getting hot enough so we took it off the stove and put it in the oven. That worked but it was too late. The colorful flour mixed together and made a big mush. But the ones that did work were really delicious. I will make it for the family after I get home! Prepare your taste buds now!

                                               (This is what they are supposed to look like) 

Merry Christmas to all! What a great week my companion and I had!  We worked hard and visited many people in order to "Share the Gift" of Christ this year. Christmas day was a miraculous day as we started the day by making some Christmas rounds. I had previously made paper stockings for some of the missionaires in the zone and packed them full of candy and treats. We delivered them before they woke up and gave them a little Christmas surprise. It was a lot of fun for us. Then we opened our presents. Some of the presents I got was some fun little toys, candy, peppermint oreos -  which are so delicious by the way!  and socks (got to have them)!  The coolest thing I got was a large Chinese dragon fan (my secret Santa gift from one of the Sis. missionaries in my zone who had my name- so awesome! ) and a wood sword. So cool!  We later played fruit ninja with them.

But that's not the best part of the day. We have been teaching an investigator for the past couple weeks and all of our teaching has lead up to this day- an awesome  Christmas baptism for this daughter of God. She didn't know it, but she was fulfilling a dream of mine to have a 'White Christmas' with a baptism on Christmas day. It was a miracle and she was confirmed a member of the church yesterday in sacrament meeting. She is the branch's first baptism and confirmation in over a year!  So our members are so happy to have a new member in our branch.

We are looking forward to another baptism next week to start the new year of 2015 strong. We are so excited and he is too. We are hoping to get his wife and daughter to follow soon after.  I am loving my mission here in Miri. I consider it a miracle I was sent here to Miri when I was. There is so much good stuff happening here in our area. However, we are always looking to how we can improve. We are searching for new investigators and people to uplift.

I just want to thank my entire family for all the wonderful Christmas cards and presents I received. I loved them all and I will read and use them often. Also I want to thank the members of Elder Geilman's family who sent him stuff and he shared with me. They were delicious! What a wonderful week we have had and I hope to see more miracles come forth in the next weeks to come. 

Love you all and have a wonderful and prosperous 2015. (The year of the goat/sheep.)

Elder Hanks

Merry Miri Caroling and adventures at the Zoo!

Dec 21, 2014 
This week has been so much fun as we have been going out and sharing the Christmas Spirit with everyone! We started on Sunday to go out and to carol at our members house and it's no regular caroling like we do in the states. For Malaysian-caroling you need to call and arrange a time in advance in order to go and carol. And then after you sing a song or two you eat and eat!!! So delicious! you then sing another song followed by "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!" And it's off to the next destination! We have done that to many homes this past week and it's so great!

(Thanks Tracy for this great picture!) 

 We even caroled at an investigator's house and he, with his family, loved it. We are looking forward to his baptism which has been moved to January 3rd and another baptism this week on Christmas Day!!! It's going to be the best!! 

Elder Geilman and I taught a great Sunday School lesson about Sharing the Gift and it was so spiritual. The members and investigators loved it and we are hoping to have a great start to the year 2015! I'm loving Miri and the missionaries I get to work with. Miri is just the best! 

Love you all and wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Elder Hanks

Dec. 14, 2014  

As I said in last week's email, we spent our p-day in Singapore and we stayed there until Wednesday for our zone conference. It was a great conference where we talked about working with our stake and ward leaders. We also got to watch the new lds video, "He is the Gift" and the Christmas Devotional by the first presidency. Really good and my companion and I loved being there.

On the first day we were there, as soon as we were done emailing our families, we took a taxi to the Singapore Zoo. It's the world's number 1 zoo for a reason. You are right along the beach to the ocean and the zoo itself feels like you are in a jungle! It's so cool and you often find yourself face to face with a monkey and no fence separating you two. Dead serious. We also got to ride an elephant! it was so cool and they are massive!!!! ours stopped for a little potty break while we were riding it.... so yes, I sat on a pooping elephant. 

One other story I want to say about the zoo was that there was a sea lion show. The hostess needed a volunteer(male) to throw a frisbee to the sea lion. No one would volunteer so I felt bad for the lady, so I volunteered. But I was destined to fail as they had me throw the frisbee from the back of the huge auditorium. Because I failed they had me dance "Gangam Style" in front of 400+ people. They loved it and I'm sure they won't forget missionaries now! ;)

We are working really hard to help 2 of our investigators get ready for there baptisms next week(Christmas week) and we are so excited for them. One of them is the most golden investigators I have ever even heard of!!!! he is so prepared to receive the gospel.

He is a father of 2 girls and has a wife. When we first met him he was drinking and smoking and it was literally killing him. The second or third time we visited him he had yellow-shot eyes suggesting liver complications. We prayed and fasted for him and we had miracles come forth. he quit smoking and drinking before we could tell him to do that and he has brought his family to church ever since he's quit. he is so excited to be baptized and we are going to be teaching him later today! He is my favorite and his faith always just boosts my spirits. 

The year is coming to an end really fast but that doesn't mean that miracles do. We went to a less active members home to carol yesterday and it was so much fun. It's not like America where you just show up on the front door and start singing. In Malaysia, due to everyone having gates you usually have to call or 'set up' a time to come carol at someone's home. You show up and everyone gathers inside to sing some songs and share a message, eat some food, then you leave to the next house. Interesting but still so much fun! 

I am just loving my time here in Miri and I hope to stay here with Elder Geilman one more transfer but we are getting our transfer news today. We will see what happens.

Transfer news just came in and Elder Geilman and I are staying together in Miri until January! We are so excited!!! I'm looking forward to Christmas in Miri!

Love you all and this is Elder Hanks

A quick email from the city of Singapore!

I'm in Singapore today(Monday and Tues) for zone conference this week!
I'm so excited and it will be full of the spirit I know it!!!!

A miracle I want to share real fast this week was we had our investigator come to church for the 2nd time and it was fast and testimony meeting. After a few people shared their testimony he went up and shared his testimony and it was so powerful!!! He wants to be baptized and we are hoping to add a few before the year is over! Keep praying for us! 

Things are going great and I love my companion. He is the bomb and so awesome!!

Well, I will let you all know more next week but I love this gospel, it's so perfect!!!

Elder Hanks