My last full week, so this is what a reunion feels like

This has been a wonderful week of many blessings. I am feeling a great sense of fulfilling my purpose and it's centered on boldness. I have been thinking about this topic for the past few weeks and have tried to apply its teachings more in my work as a missionary and what I have discovered from my studying and pondering is that being bold does not mean using direct or harsh words; which is something I feel many people think it means. What I have come to understand of the word "Bold" is to act exactly according to what the Spirit tells you to do. That helped me feel that in my lessons, when I feel the Spirit prompt me to say or do something, to seek for the soft promptings of the Spirit while we are teaching. By doing so the lessons we have been teaching have been wonderful experiences that I know have strengthened my testimony. I do know that the restoration of the gospel is true and the plan of salvation is one of the plain and precious truths that was brought back through the Prophet, Joseph Smith.

Sitiawan & JB Members!

Elder Lloyd and I were pleasantly surprised with a visit from some of our old friends from the Sitiawan branch! One of them is my recent convert and she looks so happy! I was so happy seeing her! I knew the boy and his mom were coming down to JB to see us, but he didn't tell me my recent convert was coming. So when we were walking down the street to the church and I saw all 3 of them standing there I began to feel what I think I'll feel more of when I'm approaching the SLC escalator. I was so nervous, but so happy! The boy, he's awesome, is going on a mission to Houston, Texas next year and I was so happy for him. It was basically my favorite day of the week this week. We went to a recent convert's house- the mom and her daughter are both converts, and the daughter had decided to go on a mission too so it was a house full of future missionaries! It was so awesome! It was hard saying good-bye one more time to them though. It was just a testimony and reminder that I can never forget the people I have come to know here. They are too precious and dear to me. No matter what, I cannot and will not forget the beautiful people here.

Rained so hard, we dried off at a member's hair salon! 

I love being a missionary. The work here is just continuously growing and I don't know when it will stop. We keep finding people and teaching them. They are progressing and one of the greatest investigators we have now is a 19 year-old who just is in love with the Book of Mormon. Whenever we see him he'll just pull his Book of Mormon out and show us what he's read. It's so cool! We love him and we'll be playing bball with him later today. I love JB and later this week I'll go to Singapore for my last MLC. I can't wait to be edified by the Spirit.

I'm expired as a "preacher" OH NO! 

This is the last full week I have as a full-time missionary. My goals are high and my determination is set. I am very anxious to share my testimony with everyone I see and to leave knowing that I've done my very best. Looking back on what I have already done I feel I can say so, but there is still 10 days to decide whether or not it was worth it. These last days I know will play a huge role in my post-mission life. I promise to make a difference and be sure to expect many great things in my next email. I love you all and am grateful for everything you have done to support me. The Lord is supporting us all in His work and His work will continue forth forever. This gospel is true. It is true.

Elder Hanks

the scenery 

and the bad air...! must be a fire somewhere...(Indonesia !)

We think we are badminton professionals! 

It was like a spiritual party week!

Happy Birthday E. Lloyd!

This week has been great! We got to celebrate Elder Lloyd's birthday and he's now 20! What a great stud he is now; not that he already wasn't... I guess it would be appropriate to express my gratitude for my companion. He's such a hard worker and he never stops. he is humble, but only wants to make others happy and of course he does that by sharing the gospel. I love him a ton and I wouldn't want any other missionary as my companion right now.

There was a great Young Women's conference put on by the senior couple and it was an amazing success!!!  (Check it out here:  http://www.mormonnewsroom.my/article/young-women-of-value)  It started on Friday night where the young women slept over in the church, and then all the next day Saturday. They had devotionals and testimony meetings and workshops. it was an all-out great conference. The part that we got to help with was the BBQ on Saturday. We had the goal of getting a fire going in the grill in less that an hour and a half. Sounds easy right? Well, it's not in super humid climate. We had to run to a nearby park and pick up any kind of sticks we could find. I'm glad I was an eagle scout because we got that thing burning nicely and the chicken was so good! I felt like a pro-griller with my chicken and glove. it was so fun. The young women soon showed up with their parents and we had a great dinner that ended with them singing the youth theme song for this year, "Embark." it was a great ending to the day and Elder Lloyd's birthday. Did I get him anything? Yes! Because he is such a stud of an athlete I got him some protein. He couldn't stop laughing. It was awesome!

Zone Meeting was also this last week and we had a great activity of playing actual golf on Monday and then the meeting wasn't until the next day. Regarding golf, although it's been 2 years since I've hit a ball, I gotta say I think I still got quite a swing. Maybe I can play a round or two with my awesome dad in a few weeks! Looking forward to it! The zone members really enjoyed it and I hope they enjoyed the meeting more than just the activity. We talked about being bold in finding and teaching by sharing a scripture as our zone theme for the next few weeks, "Thresh the Nations" -D&C 35:13-14 #ByTheSpirit It is clear to me that we cannot do anything in this work without the Spirit. He is the Comforter and we need the Comforter because the work we do is often uncomfortable. It's my testimony that as long as you are striving to have the Spirit with you you will be happy.  

Golfing for our Zone activity

Many miracles were found this week with investigators coming to church and our finding 5 new investigators which is awesome!! We are loving this are and this may turn out to be the best area I've ever been in. I did say "may.." though. one great experience I had was watching "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" with our recent convert who got baptized last week. He felt the Spirit so strong and I did too. 

One other short experience was we were teaching the second lesson for a new investigator this week when I asked him how his reading was of the Book of Mormon. He said that he did just as we said, to read it and pray about it. He told us that when he did he felt a great warmth in his heart and since he's loved reading the Book of Mormon. I was so excited to help him understand the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It was a great lesson.

I love this work. it's so true. I've discovered the importance of every day and the uniqueness each day has. With only a few of them left -- as my great companion would say, "Let's go!!!" 

I love this work, it's so true. 

Love you all,

Elder Hanks

A Baptism!

From the subject of this email you will know that yes! We had an amazing baptism this past week. I have just come to love this guy. He is amazing! I'm sorry I don't have much time at all today,  because today is the zone activity. We have the entire zone here. But things are great. Sorry it's so short!  

Our miracle this week I would have to say came from the exchange I had with Elder Perritt. What happened was we had a lesson planned for that night with our investigator who just got baptized. I was really excited for it as it would be his last investigating lesson and I wanted a member to be there to help testify that what he was doing was right. I called some members,  and in the end our 'last hope' for a member present fell through. I didn't know what to do,  so I basically accepted the reality of having just an other lesson. However, God is a God of miracles. On our walk back from the area we had just spent time contacting in,  we walked past a little food stand where we heard someone call out, "ELDER!" We looked over and saw sitting there, two Singaporeans,  a member and her husband. They had just randomly decided to come to JB that day for dinner, but they thought it was weird they ended up at this little stand for dinner. They didn't think it was anything until they saw us, then they were happy to be there!  I actually knew them fairly well as they have been to the JB branch before. They invited us to eat with them, but I didn't want to interrupt their dinner and we had a lesson soon, but they kept insisting. The idea then came to my mind: I made the deal with them that if we eat with them,  they then had to come help teach a lesson with us. Deal!

 The dinner was nice, but the lesson was the most amazing thing I experienced that day. The love of God for our investigator was so strong and having those miracle members there to help testify was just what that lesson needed. It was a real faith-building experience. 

This is my brother Hunter, who is in the MTC learning Chinese
from a former Singapore missionary! - Sam Mitchell!  Small world! 

I love the work of the Lord. It's really HIS work.

Love, Elder Hanks

Southern most point of the Asian Continent

Sept 6 2015

I don't have a ton of time to write today, but here are the fun things of the week so far. 

On Tuesday we got to help a member who is a little less active move houses. It was so fun because Elder Lloyd and I went with the other elders from Masai; Elder Leavitt and Elder Tessors, and we had so much fun. Our brother, who's an awesome Indian brother - was so grateful for our helping him and we loved it. It's great to finally have a service project and that's sometimes what we just pray for. We want to do more service but rarely do we get it so we were so happy! 

A miracle I want to write about goes like this.

Back in July Elder Lloyd and I were on our way home when we saw this kid wearing basketball clothes going to play some ball. We walked with him a little bit, but only got a minute to talk before he turned about began to enter an apartment complex, so we pretty much gave up when I felt the immediate and strong prompting say, "You tell him your purpose now!" I called out, "WAIT!" He turned a little startled, but I ran over to him and said, "Look, I know you are about to go play basketball so sorry for interrupting you, but I just feel like I need to tell you that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and our purpose is to teach other people how they can be closer to him. Can we share with you our message sometime?" He looked at me and said, "Okay." We got his number that day and never was able to get a set date set up; that is until yesterday. We were scheduled to meet with him at 5:00 pm at the church. Just to confirm the appointment I called him in the early afternoon and he confirmed for the appointment, but he said something else that surprised me. He said, "Actually, I recently saw a movie about you." I said, "What?" "Yeah," he went on, "it's called 'Freetown'." I asked, "Freetown? I've never seen that." He replied, "Yeah, it's about you guys. In it there are two guys wearing white shirts and ties with a black tag that has their name on it. Your name has 'Elder' right?" I was shocked, "Uh, yeah. See you at 5:00?" "Yeah, see you then." 

I told Elder Lloyd and he was a little worried, as I was that the movie was some sort of bad film, but if you do your research a little it's actually a really good movie. I think it was that film that helped bring the Spirit when we taught him and asked, "Would you like to hear the special message those two elders were teaching in that movie?" We taught him the Restoration and it was a powerful experience. 

The work is so awesome!!! I love it! I love Elder Lloyd! He's amazing! It's his birthday soon so if anyone has any ideas what to get their companion let me know!

Elder Hanks

Aug 31 2015
Today is Malaysia's Independence Day so the branch organized an activity to travel together to a national park located on the very farthest tip of the Asian continent. It was way fun and we had a great turn out! There were many fun little stories that happened including my doing a handstand and my shoe fell off and almost fell into the ocean. Elder Avery getting chased by a very crazy monkey, and eating a delicious lunch. 

With Pres. & Sis. Simmons

In other news our mission president came to visit our branches here in JB and we had awesome interviews with him. I learned so much from them about other meanings of pride that I have never thought of and what it really means to worship our Savior as the people do in Lehi's vision of the tree of Life.

What I really learned about pride that I liked is this: When we think of pride the saying, "I think I am better than...." comes to mind. Pride is a feeling that we have when we put ourselves above others and the scriptures say that pride is a great evil that is capable of bringing down even nations. But in some cases the phrase, "I'm not good enough for..." is also a way of having pride, especially when this sentence may be finished in, "...the atonement of Jesus Christ." or "...to pray to Heavenly Father." because when we say this we are actually saying, "I think I know better than Heavenly Father." It is He that has told us that we are ALL forgiven through the atonement of Jesus Christ and we can always pray to Him no matter our history. We do not know more than God, and that is why He gives us His word through His prophets, the scriptures, and His son. It's just because He loves us.

our awesome branch activity! 

Furthest point south on the Asian Continent

A cool miracle that I had this past week was like this. On Saturday Elder Lloyd and I had an appointment fall through and had some free time. We rode our bikes around looking for finding opportunities when we saw a younger man walking. We rode up and said, "Hi!" he looked a little confused but was friendly. We introduced ourselves and bottom line, he showed interest to learn about Jesus Christ and said we could meet up sometime. On Sunday, the next day, I called him and asked if we could meet later that night. He said he would ask his mom and get back to me. Around 7:15pm we were getting ready to teach one more lesson when he called me. He told me that he was sorry. He asked his mom and his mom told him some bad things about us and wouldn't let him meet with us that night and he should just focus on his studies. I just listened and then asked him what his mom said. He hesitated, but then shared that his mom told him that we did not believe in Christ, that we worship some other god. I listened again for a minute and then said along these lines, I'm sure Heavenly Father was helping me, "I understand and I know that your mom loves you so much, that is why she would talk to you about this. She wants what is best for you, but there is one thing that you should know; we believe in Jesus Christ. We love him and know that he is our Savior. He died for us and gave everything for us. We study his words and want to be close to him. ...." there was more said, but I forgot mostly what was said after that. After I finished speaking I heard a, "Oh! Well, there must have been some misunderstanding. When is your church open?" I invited him to English class this Friday and church on Sunday; he said he would come. 

Chinese yo- yo

I know that simply sharing a testimony with someone can change their lives. Share your testimony with others, it will change their life forever. And for forever you will talk about that day you decided to share with those who heard.

Love you all!

Elder Hanks

Time to finish strong!

It's been a really fun week this past week with some fun activities. Real fast, last week we went out to KSL mall to meet up with a member who took us to a night market - one of the biggest ones I have ever seen. As we continued to walk along we came to a car selling stinky tofu. It smelled terrible and of course the member bought us some... it was disgusting. It tasted like trash. 

Other activities we did included yoga (early this morning), exchanges with Elder Avery - which was awesome, badminton (Elder Lloyd broke his racquet..) and climbing on the roof of our apartment.

We have had many small miracles this past week so here I go...

On Friday we went to get my bicycle tire replaced when while at the store a man who was there for the same reason,  heard me speaking Chinese to the worker there. He asked about where I learned Chinese and a great, classic contact began. When he heard that we were Christian missionaries, he said he wasn't super interested, but his daughter would be. So he referred his daughter to us and we were thrilled! He told us she would like to learn more about Christians. I called her but she was busy at the time so are following up with her today. Immediately after, as we were riding to our next appointment a man pulled up next to us at a traffic light and shouted to us, "Where are you going? Want to come get a cup of coffee or tea with me?" Please, the two things we DON'T drink. We kindly declined but asked him if he was free another day we could meet with him. He said, "yeah!" but the light turned green. He drove ahead and pulled over to give us his number. He introduced himself as a Christian and said that when we are free he would like us to meet with him again. It was an awesome miracle Heavenly Father putting prepared people in our path.

This week we found 3 new investigators who are really good ones!  One of them we met a few weeks ago and he said that he would be interested in meeting. We finally got an appointment made with him on Thursday, but we didn't know if we should go. The reason being,  he called us later to confirm with us the appointment and that never happens unless they want you to join their company or help them with money. So we were somewhat apprehensive on going, but w

felt we should go so we called him and told him we were on our way. We arrived at the destination and found a place to sit with him. This man, although looked a little rough around the edges, turned out to be one of the nicest, most sincere guys I have ever met. As soon as we sat down he said, "I know that you can't help me with my financial problems and things like that, but I would hope that you can help me just feel better. That a lot of my stresses can be taken away. I am very stressed and would like more peace in my life." My jaw dropped. We shared with him the Book of Mormon and shared with him a great scripture that helped him feel really good. He felt so good that he is meeting with us this Tuesday and wants to learn more. It was so cool! 

I also went on exchanges with Elder Avery this week and it was so fun. We spent most of our time looking for people in his area and I had forgotten how fun it was to just meet people on the street like that. At one point we knocked on someone's gate and before the person came out Elder Avery said, "I brought a hymn book if we want to sing a hymn for them." As we saw this little old lady come out she waved to us and said, "Hold on! (In Chinese)" She opened her gated doorway and her son who speaks English came out and called, "Yes? Anything?" We told him we were Christians that wanted to share a message with him and his family. He didn't seem to interested at first, 

  but then...haha! we told him, "We were hoping we could sing you guys a song!" He paused, looked down, then said, "Okay! Come on in!" We went into his home, the older lady was his mom, and we sat down with them and looked at all their beautiful pictures of Jesus Christ they had in their home when our eyes caught on one picture. It was a painting of Jesus Christ holding a lamb that is on the front of "The Restoration" pamphlet. I knew it was done by a LDS artist and before we sang for them shared a little bit about what we teach. We shared the Book of Mormon and the man said he is very open to learn. It was a cool contact! I really had fun with Elder Avery who is a very upbeat and happy elder. He's probably the funniest elder I have met in the mission. Serious. 

Well, these are the last 6 weeks. They are going to be the best next 6 weeks. Coming home yesterday I said to Elder Lloyd, "You know, I feel like I haven't quite done enough." This feeling I had was a big motivation that I am going to take into this last transfer to help me push to the very end. I am going to take today to get back into the blocks to start off running faster than I have ever done before. We have a few investigators on date and it's our goal to get them progressing in this next week. Hope to be able to send you a white picture in these next few weeks. 

Love you all and I am so happy that I get these next 6 weeks to be with Elder Avery, Elder Pearce, and especially Elder Lloyd. I tell him all the time he is the companion that I have always prayed for. But don't worry, I have loved every single one of my companions. They have all changed me. Here we go! Work! Work! Work! There's nothing better!

From Elder Hanks

From the slums of "trunky" to awesome time in Melaka

We had a great week which included our going to Melaka for exchanges with the missionaries there. Melaka is a 3 hour bus ride so it's pretty far, but we enjoyed a fun P-day with them and we had great exchanges with them. I love the missionaries who are serving there, who is Elder Ebeling and Elder Lallemant. They are awesome!

We had some great miracles and I got out of a little slump I was having that some people may call "being trunky." But I broke it and just in time too - as we had some great miracles happen this week! 

On Friday we had an appointment with a potential investigator Elder Allen and I had met on exchanges. We tried to get another male person with us so we could go into her home and teach her, but we couldn't find one, so we just went in faith that all would be okay. We knocked on her door, but she wasn't there so we stood there for a minute and made a move to leave, but just then she was walking up the stairs... awkward. We were honest in telling her our situation and she was very understanding of our rules and agreed to talk downstairs in an open area. We decided we only had a few minutes to talk and so we wanted to get right down to the point. We shared with her the Book of Mormon. When she saw "Mormon" she said, "Oh, you are the Mormons? I haven't heard that great of things about you." We talked and I just felt that I should share a brief history of the Book of Mormon and my testimony. After I did you could just feel the Spirit around us and in our hearts; I was just praying that she was feeling it too. In the end said she could accept a copy and read it and said we could come back in 2 weeks. It was a great experience. 

Also on Friday we got a notice on our building informing us that Johor Bahru was short on water and that we might get our water turned off for certain periods of time and that it could last up to a month in order to save water - so we were to be wise with our water use. Which is so crazy because it rains buckets here alot. So we went out and bought these big tubs and stored water in them for showering and other purposes. When Sunday, the first day of having no water, came around,  we woke up and one of us dared to check the tap to see if we really didn't have water. He turned it on... and water came out! So far we have still had the pleasure of water, but we are keeping our storage until this month passes. The fun things of living in Malayisa. Makes you grateful for plenty of water & basic necessities! 

yummy peach cobbler... I think.....

It was a great week and church this week was so great. The Spirit was so strong that I was having a really hard time singing because the Spirit was so strong! haha! We even had a random former investigator come to church and she said she wants to learn again and she'll be coming to church for the next little bit of time, until she can get her feet under her. But we are happy that she is back! 

Things are great here in Johor Bahru! I love the mission! here are 2 quotes from Elder Lloyd and I this week:

"The first bite is easier to give than the last." - Elder Lloyd

"You can't decide who looks at you, but you can determine what they see." -Elder Hanks

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