21 March 2016

Hey everyone!

This was the best week! To start off, lately, I have been really thinking a lot about how if people could really know the essence of what I am trying to share with them, they would be more likely to at least hear a little bit more later. I hope that kind of makes sense. Essentially having what I say be more powerful, simple, yet full. I had no idea how to do that before but now I have a little bit of an idea how to do it. Not a huge idea, just a little. Through out the week, I prayed multiple times asking for strength in my mind and my mouth so that I would  be able to deliver my message with simplicity and power. I prayed multiple times and last night, I could really feel that come. All of a sudden I felt a huge realization for what I am sharing about. I knew my purpose before but this time I just felt it become a little more clearer as I looked at it from another perspective. One of the basic foundational things I would use in some of my contacts was the very true fact that today, Allah telah menyatakan kepada manusia lagi supaya kita tidak sesat, supaya Dia boleh memenuhkan tujuan Allah untuk membawa kegembiraan kepada semua anak-anak Dia dan Dia memimpin kita hari ini melalui pelayanan Dia, seorang nabi. Or in other words God has spoken to man again and wants to fulfill his purpose of bringing happiness to his children and He leads us today to know how to achieve this great blessing of happiness through his servants the prophets. I think of it a little differently in the two languages so don't bother translating it haha. Anyway, I felt fire once this hit me. I had this awesome thought about how as I am going, there are angels around me to lead and support and realizing that as I try to build the kingdom of God, (as it is the calling of all people in His church) I will always be supported and provided what is required. Dang that's such a cool feeling. That is something that is promised to all of Gods children as they fulfill the will of God. That was a really cool experience though. It was awesome because then I went around talking to people and the first 10 people I talked to expressed interest and we set up an appointment to meet. SO yeah. So cool. It works.

Anyway, another thing I discovered is that God works through our passions to fulfill His purpose. I went on an exchange with one of my mtc buddies. We ate lunch at this new cafe and when we finished, we walked out back towards our bikes. I look over and see this sick, almost hairless puppy. I went over to it and as I walked over, he looked at me and started coming over to me as fast as he can, letting out these wimpers as he walked. Flip, I almost cried. I pet him a little bit and he saw he had bugs crawling all over him. I love dogs so I didn't care. He was really hungry so I ran back up to the cafe and bought so chicken rice for him. I came back by the trash cans and saw that he wasn't there anymore. I looked around for him a bit and couldn't find him. Well there was this Bidayuh girl watching us who worked at the cafe and was on break. She asked if we were looking for the dog and we said heck yeah. She showed us over to where this little baby wandered off and there he was curled up under some plants to stay out of the hot sun. I got down and started to give him some chicken rice and boy was he pumped about that. Best meal he's had ever. Cute little hairless tail wagging and what not. Anyway, we started talking to that girl. (this is how God works through our passions) and she said she's never seen that before and asked about who we are and stuff. We told her and talked to her and we told her we are missionaries for our church and told her a bit about what we do. She was really excited, she was christian and wanted to understand more about Jesus Christ and we said well, we can help you with that. SO two days later we met and she's investigating further! So yeah, crazy how it works like that huh?

Well, yeah there's a lot of stuff written right there. Anyway, my companion and I have been making a lot of  adjustments to how we can better help people understand about this message and we have been seeing miracles. OH MY GOSH speaking of miracles, I told you all a few weeks back about a guy that said he prayed and got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and literally, the day after that, he was gone. Disappeared. We lost contact with him and even his friends had no idea where he was. I honestly thought he like, died and no one could find him but what do you know. We pull up to the internet kedai this morning and hear a car beep behind us and what the flip. It's Alvin. I had to do a few fistbumps to unleash my excitement. He's back!! He said he just got a new number but has been wanting to meet with us so yeah, we are meeting with him this week so I'll let you know how it goes! 

One thing I learned this week was from the very last verse of the book of John. You read "25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen." This verse really helps me understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, being another testament of Jesus Christ. It also really helps me understand the importance of a prophet today. It the Bible contained everything about Jesus Christ and his church, there would be no other churches because we would perfectly know how to run the church. But that's not what happened. So we need a prophet to know from God through that sacred revelation EXACTLY how the church is to be established in its fullness and purity. 

Anyway. This stuff is so cool and I love learning about it. Don't forget to do it! It is so cool! I love you all whoever reads this. Sorry I went on a bit of a rant today. The feelings that God gives you to know that truth is are indescribable and you can always experience these.

Love,

Elder Hanks

Elder Nielson/ Church Missionary Department CEO visit. Kuching, East Malaysia

March 2016

13 March 2016

Hey short letter today, we went to the Orangutan zoo this morning and now don't have much time to email! Sorry. Just want to say a few things this week! We have been working with a lot of people! We have about 20 investigators with quite a few potential! This past week we put a few on date and they are really solid! I am so excited! They are too! They have been really good at taking thought into what we teach and studying it out in their mind. SO COOL! One of them is Chinese who speaks really good English and he actually lived in California for about 3 years so he is really Americanized. He's so goofy and so awesome. On Friday, Elder Neilson of the 70 came and spoke to us in Kuching! It was such a cool experience. I learned so much and afterward got sooooo pumped to go out and do work! I love doing this. This love is something I have grown and now I am so thankful for it. Dang. Sorry again I don't have much time to write! I'll write more next week! I hope I was able to get at least a few pictures up on dropbox!

Love,

Elder Hanks

Sorry I didn't have time to add everyone to the email!

I would love to know the stories behind these pictures!  Maybe we should all make up short stories for them??  

2 Nephi 4:28-30

 My boys and their love for ginger beer!  EWWWW!!!

7 March 2016

Hey folks,

This was a good ol week. Rain ruins a lot besides my shoes. We had a ton of appointments set up throughout the week and almost all of them were cancelled because of rain. We didn't cancel them, the people we were trying to meet did. (even though we are the ones riding our bikes to their house in the rain, I don't get it) Anyway, I am hoping a lot that this week there isn't much rain. The weather here is still on a streak of raining like crazy everyday. Relentless. I'm not kidding. Every. Day. But working through and around the rain, we were able to find/meet a lot of less actives this past week which was really fun. Kind of discouraging as some of them weren't happy to see us (mainly because they had a bad experience with elders staying at their house too long multiple days in a row) and refused to talk to us. That was sad. There were some though that asked us where we have been and that they have been waiting for us. Anyway, that's a chunk of what happened this week. Lots of less actives. Pray for no rain in Malaysia this week!

Love you all. Sorry for the short email.

Love,

Matthew 

29 February 2016

This week was a good week. I am weary though. 

So. Remember that guy I talked about last week who we met on the moto? Well. We are teaching his family now! He introduced us to his family and got 5 new investigators from it. I'm way pumped! They are a way sweet family and seem to really love hearing about our message. His wife was super excited to have us over.They are the best. He has a hard time reading so his wife

will read the Book of Mormon to him so he can understand and it's the best. I am really excited to see where this goes! 

The family I talked about last week who I had a prompting to visit but ignored but later fulfilled, we met them again and they are really cool too! We ride past their house on the way home from one of our areas and everytime we ride by  they all try to speak english to us and say stuff like "hey bro" and "good morning" (even though it's 9:00 at night. so cute). Yeah they are way awesome. Last night when we rode by they stopped to talk to some of their kids and one of the moms came out really drunk and started going on about how it was saturday (even though it was sunday) and how she is fluent in english and she is not drunk and all that stuff. It was funny, she's crazy. So yeah we haven't taught them the word of wisdom yet but we'll get there eventually and get that worked out. They have a nephew who stays with them who's 20 years old and he has been really awesome at listening and trying to learn. It's really cool to see.

One of the things we wanted to try to do in the times we weren't meeting investigators was to go try to find the long lost less active members. The records are poorly updated so we are trying to find out if people still live in our area or not and things like that. We found that some of the peoples houses had burned down so they moved back to kampung, another one saw us and told us they were someone else and when we asked their neighbors who they were, found out it was them, the rest were pretty sweet. Some had some troubles that they needed help with and were glad to see the elders again because they lost our number. Some were just happy to see us and let us in. Anyway. I'm excited to see where meeting these less actives goes. 

Well for P-day today, we are going to go take a nap. I haven't had a good nap in a long time and I really need it so yeah, I'm pumped to see where this next week will go. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Matthew Hanks