Hello folks,

So. This week I was fatherless. Twice. So let me explain this to those who don't know what this means. Missionaries have a joke that the mission is a whole other life. When you come out, you are born, your trainer is your father, his trainer is your grandfather, and when you go home is when you die. That's the basics. So I think you all know what fatherless means now. So on Wednesday we had exchanges. Since there's only a pair of Chinese Elders and a pair of Malay, we had a bilingual companionship. So I was with another elder this day. We both speak English because we are both American but the language he came out here to learn is Chinese. So in the sense of going to teach the Malay people, I was their only hope. So we went out. We went around some of the houses trying to find some contacts but had very little luck. Come around 6 o'clock, we went to  one of the most impoverished places in my area to teach some of the less-actives that lived down there. First we met with a Brother. He is a really awesome guy. His family was actually the first family I met on my first day here. So before we went, I was way nervous. This was a huge test of my language skills but the thing is I felt like I had prepared as much as I could for this lesson. I said a prayer before I went in asking for inspiration in my words and clarity of my message. I was teaching about family and how a husband and wife, by showing love towards each other, can teach their children simply through their example and also help bring their family closer together. I went in feeling, like, awesome honestly. Like, people say stuff like they were "filled with the spirit" and things like that and let me tell you. I have never felt more like that is described. I went in and was able to even have small talk with them. The best part was that I UNDERSTOOD THEM. Like, whoa. I had a conversation with the whole family by myself. It was so crazy. Then with the lesson I was teaching, I could just feel more or less a power in what I was saying. Words were just rolling off my tongue like I knew them. I understood my own words even which was even more surprising. I was able to deliver a message to them that I had prepared just for them, that I believed could help their family, and it was incredible. God is there, that's one thing I was reassured of here. Man. This was such a crazy time. I couldn't even believe it. That was definitely a huge boost of confidence for me. For sure. 

I guess a few other things I saw this week was a Takraw tournament. Takraw is a sport here that is a mix of volleyball and soccer. This sport blows my mind. Go look up a video of it. It's like volleyball but people mainly use their feet and they do like back flips to spike this hollow ball over the net. This sport.. I will never be able to play it. Let's see. The culture here is to leave your shoes outside the house so you don't track dirt and stuff into the house, so we used to keep our shoes outside. However. This past week, some jackwagons came by and stole our shoes in the middle of the night. I pity them because those were my old golf course works shoes and their feet my get some weird fungus from the fertilizers that are all over those things. What really was terrible was that they also stole one of the elders bike. Dang fools. 

So if you remember a woman I mentioned from the other week?  She is the sweet lady from the mall that came up to us with tears in her eyes asking if she could have one of our books. So we met with her and a friend two weeks ago and then again this past week. They have been so excited to learn that they talked to one of their friends about what they were doing and he wants to learn now too! So we taught them this week a good lesson about the restoration of Jesus Christs Gospel and they are all so cute with it. This woman has her Kitab Mormon ( Book of Mormon) in this little case that she made for it and then her friendl has his with all of these tabs of places where he has questions. It's so cute. They have been really listening to the things we have been talking about and are really beginning to listen to what we are saying and I can see them really listening to what the spirit is telling them. It's way cool to see the Holy Ghost do work in people. 

This past week we got mail! We get mail every week if we're lucky. Usually every two weeks. But this week got a package from my family and what did they send that was a huge blessing to me? Desert Heat and Buffalo seasoning from Buffalo Wild Wings. Oh my gosh. First thing I did was go make myself some fried egg sandwiches and have mercy on my soul. They were incredible. Game changer for sure.
Last Monday after email, we went to the store to get some supplies and there was a group of Iban women in the back and as we went by just said hey and stuff and then as we were walking away they were like "oh dia sigat" (he's handsome) thinking that we didn't know Malay. But jokes on them because we did so we turned around and said thank you and were on our way. I felt kind of bad because they were super embarrassed. Either way. It was a good week. Exhausting but when is missionary work not?

Love you all! 

Elder Hanks