21 September 2015


Hello folks!

This has been a crazy fast week. We started out, last P-day after email, going to the a crocodile farm! The a farm was about 3 hours away from here. Holy cow. I have never been blown away in my life by any place. Mainly because I discovered how flippin lazy crocodiles are. If you look at the pictures I posted, you'll see that they are all just sprawled out everywhere. They barely moved. However, one of the zookeepers came, threw a chicken in there and.. well... it got pretty lively. Those crocs move so fast. But they're like really lazy dogs is how I see it. This chicken would go past them and they would try to go for it but if they missed, they would just give up and sit there. Man. Those things are so lazy. After the crocodile pit, we went all around the area. They had way more than crocs there! They had a sunbear you could hold, all sorts of snakes, and MONKEYS! I loved those monkeys! I gave one a stick and went and sat down right next to him and started making the monkey noises I have been practicing my whole life. This monkey looked me straight in the eyes, lifted his eyebrows in a sort of way which I interpreted as him understanding me, and then puckered his lips at me! Well, the thing is, this was a super sassy monkey, and I think he knew the rules of a missionary (not being allowed to kiss or really touch girls besides a handshake so you) because the second after he did that, gave me a super goofy and toothy smile and then he took off and started doing parkour through the trees! That was quite an experience. I also saw two monkeys wrestling but this wasn't like MMA, this was like Jason Borne and the Man of Steel going at it in this giant cage. They flew around and climbed all over the place, while fighting. I was amazed. That wasn't rehearsed. These two baby monkeys were doing this with instinct. I wish I was a monkey sometimes.

Let's see. One of my favorite things to witness happens around 6 o'clock. As we ride our bikes through a street market, the muslim call to pray is going on. All the Muslims start heading to the Mosques and it's quite a sight to see two white Mormon missionaries riding bikes through an Iban market flocked by Muslims. The Muslim call to prayer is something I definitely thought I would never witness. Now, I heard it 5 times a day. Its so cool because it just echos through out the whole city. Dang. Malaysia is so cool. You all need to come here sometime.

Yesterday in Church, I was on the piano. Since there's still some lack of organization ( and since sometimes I dont always understand what is being said) I would just watch our chorister for whenever she would stand up to know when to play. Her name is Maggie, she is Iban, 18, and awesome. So I was sitting at the piano, I knew that the next hymn was coming up, so I was getting ready and watching for her to stand up to know when to start. So she stands up. I go ahead and start playing the introduction to the next hymn, and then I look up to see what her tempo is, and she's not at the music stand... no. She is at the pulpit. She was speaking that day and I didn't hear that. So I guess it was nice because I gave her a little bit of an intro to her talk but man. I was so embarrassed. 

I love all of you guys! 

Thank you for all you do!

Love,
Elder Hanks