Wow! I absolutely LOVE Puchong!
Puchong is just a small part of KL. KL is a state, as well as a city. So we're
just outside of KL (Kuala Lumpur) in subsection (I think is what it's called?) named
Puchong. KL is a huuuuge city, so I'm not really sure how they divide it. I
spent the first half of the week in Penang, then moved to Puchong on Wednesday!
So for my last P Day in Penang, we just said goodbye to some
people and relaxed. Tuesday was probably
the craziest day of my mission. We were doing personal study when a random guy
called, and we set up an appointment. We were way surprised that he called,
because it was just out of the blue. We didn't even know how he got our number.
We were way excited that he scheduled an appointment with us! We went and
taught a less active named Peter. Little did we know that he had converted to
some other religion, and he was mega anti-Mormon. When Elder Ng talks to people
who say that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet, he gets mad. Like. REALLY mad. He was arguing a TON with Peter. They were having a super-heated debate over
the table in this restaurant/fast food place called Nasi Kandar (basically the
McDonalds of India). There were a lot of
people around, so after a while, I said that we had another appointment. Talking to Peter was a waste of time. We said a closing prayer, then stood up and
left. Preeeetty awkward. After that we decided we should let Elder Ng cool down
a bit, so we just chilled at a restaurant in Komtar for about 15 minutes. We
decided to contact a little before heading to our appointment with the random
guy that called. I talked to the first person I saw, got his number, and then
the Nepalese guards came and kicked us out of the mall. We got kicked out of ANOTHER mall!! Elder Ng
was disappointed again. We decided we'd call the guy and make sure that we
still had an appointment. Elder Massie called him and confirmed the
appointment, then right before Elder Massie pulled the phone away from his ear
to hang up, the guy said in a quiet voice, "I love you." So Elder
Massie was like,, "What in the world? Do you think that guy knows we're
missionaries?" Elder Ng took the phone away from Elder Massie and called
the guy back. Apparently the guy called the wrong number and didn't realize we
were missionaries... I thiiiiink he was trying to hook up with Elder Massie.
Soooooo it was a blessing that we had the thought to confirm our appointment.
After that, we were going to ride our bikes over to Gurney (another mall) and
contact since our appointment was cancelled. We went to grab our bikes. Elder
Massie had the key, so he unlocked the bikes, pulled the lock off, and held it up.
The lock had been cut. Elder Massie said, "We're missing a bike."
Some STOLE Elder Ng's bike! So Elder Ng's day went from bad to worse… to even
worse. I felt so bad for him. He got a taxi ride home, and we rode our bikes
(splitting up in our mission is allowed, because transportation is such a
problem here). I asked President Simmons, and he said it was okay. We didn't
break any rules. I can't remember anything else that happened on Monday, but it
was a craaazy day!
Wednesday, I said goodbye to
all the Elders, went to the airport, and flew to KL. I paid 70 ringgit for a
taxi ride to Puchong (that's a ton of money for a missionary), then had to find
the apartment. I didn't have a phone, and all I knew is it was in a building
called Skypod. SO. I started looking while we were driving. When we got into
Puchong I saw a giant building with ‘Skypod’ written really big across the top,
so I got dropped off there! That was awesome! Then I couldn't find the
elevators. Turned out I had to go allllll the way around the building to the
side. After finding that (I talked to a Jehovah's Witness on my way around the
building), I went up, and realized I didn't know which room was ours. I only
knew which floor. I looked around for a
bit, and found a room with this HUGE pencil sketch of Jesus on it. Luckily, it
was easy to tell it was the missionaries' place. I was super glad I found it. I
had to go through this little door on the side (they call it a slave door
here?) because they weren't home yet, and the front door was locked. I looked
around the house and found that they had hung a giant American flag on their
balcony. They have this box they call
the Kolob Portal. One of the members in the branch is OBSESSED with facsimiles,
so he gave them the idea for the Kolob portal.
The apartment is awesome. We taught a guy named Rama at night, but for
the rest of the day, we pretty much just contacted.
Thursday we had a miracle! We
contacted all day, and right before we were going to go to a less active
member's house, we decided we'd talk to the next person we saw. A Chinese
looking guy walked past, we talked to him, and he asked if he could join our
church! So we said SURE! After, we invited him to church (his name is Roman), we
learned that he was from Kazakhstan. He speaks Russian. His parents are from
South Korea. This dude is DIVERSE. He's really cool though.
I just realized I need to
introduce my new companion! Elder Forsyth! He pronounces it like the number
four, then scythe. Forsyth. He's WAY good at drawing, but he only draws women.
I have no idea why. He just doesn't like drawing men. He's a little strange, but
he likes really good music! He can speak a bit of Tamil. Tamil is the funniest
sounding language you'll ever hear. When Indian girls hear a white person speak
it, they LOVE the person that spoke it. Elder Forsyth starts conversations by
speaking Tamil ALL THE TIME. It's so funny. He's really cool. I think we'll get
along really well. He's been out 4 and a half months, and has been in this area
the entire time! So he'll spend the first 1/4 of his mission here. He wears
fake glasses because he thinks they look cool. It's hilarious.
The other Elders in the apartment are Elder Jones and Elder
Mccusker. Elder Mccusker got in the field the same day as me, but he went to the
MTC 6 weeks before me so he's a full transfer ahead of me.
Friday, we met a less active member
named Winson. Winson's parents are super
anti-Christian. The missionaries for the
past few transfers kept telling Elder Forsyth that he shouldn't waste his time
visiting him, but we decided we'd go! When we got there, his dad didn't recognize
that we were missionaries, so he invited us in.
Winson brought us up to his room and we had a good talk. It was great! He said for the past 3 days, he
felt like he should go back to church, so he prayed and promised God he would
go to church, then we showed up and invited him! H e went to church Sunday! It
was great! He's a wayyyy funny guy. He told us he's scared of sunlight and
hates Malaysia. He's way weird. I love him. After that, I bought a lighter, and
Elder Forsyth bought a map. The lighter was 1 ringgit (25 US cents). So
cheap! That night, Elder Forsyth showed
me how to modify the lighter. We got a
two foot flame going and used all the gas in like 30 seconds. It was totally
worth it. It wasn't too dangerous, but I
won't do it again.
Saturday, we were walking to
the church to print off English class fliers, and these two Liberian guys
stopped us. They told us they want to learn
more about Jesus, and they'd get us students to teach as well. They gave us their numbers. WHAT??? That was insane. I was freaking out. We'll
see what happens with that! We advertised
our English class and got 7 or 8 prospective investigators. From there we contacted for a while on the
train called LRT. It's the main public
transport system in KL. We jumped on the first LRT, and there were literally only
3 Chinese people on the train. The rest were Malay (also Muslim). We're not
allowed to teach Muslims. We talked to the 3 Chinese people, got off the LRT,
and jumped onto the next one. It was pretty much the same thing. After all of
this unsuccess, we went home. As we were leaving the LRT station, we saw a girl
on a bench and talked with her. She said she would come to church! So that was
great!
Sunday was a day of seeing how
the Lord blesses missionaries. Puchong has been struggling with getting good
numbers for about 3 transfers. This Sunday our numbers were really good for any
area! Between the two companionships, we had 11 investigators at church! That's
CRAZY! We also put 3 people on date for baptism and got 3 new
investigators. All around, it was an
AWESOME week. We called the ZL's at night to report, and they said, "What
happened to Puchong?!?!? You guys haven't even been close to this in forever,
and now you're beating almost every area in KL!" We've been extremely
blessed, and I hope we continue to be blessed!
The members here are awesome!
Bryant is a great guy. He calls the missionaries and asks if he can come
contacting with us. Who does that??? That's the worst part of missionary work!
He's super awesome. There's also a lady that is going to make us bread every
week because I told her I like bread! So I'm way excited to be here. From a
missionary prospective Puchong is a way better area than Penang, because
contacting is way easier, the branch is just about big enough to be a ward, the
members are way awesome, and the work is picking up. Even though Penang was
doing super well, I'm really happy to be in Puchong.
Just something random - Hymn
322, come all ye Sons of God, has become my motto--the first line of the 3rd verse. We sing that a lot in the mornings. Another
random thing - Indian food is suuuper good. I actually really REALLY like it. It's
super cheap, they serve bread, and it all tastes amazing. Indian food is still
the best!
I love you all and the support
you give to me! I love being a missionary, and I know that the church is true!
I wish I could send pictures, but nobody here has an adapter! I'll buy one and
send a bunch next week! Have a nice week!
Love,
Elder Ben Mullins
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