Elder Ben Mullins: Busy, Busy, Busy

Hey Everyone!

This week was really REALLY awesome. We taught tons of lessons, got 4 new investigators (most people can't even get 2 in one week), found lots of prepared people, and had an overall AWESOME week. I love being a missionary! It's tons of work, but it's tons of fun too.

Last Monday, we hung out with Sister Stephanie and her nephew, Gordon. We ate at OLIVE GARDEN. I can't believe it exists in Malaysia! It doesn't taste quite the same, but it's close enough. It was one of the best meals I've had in a loooong time. Four months actually! I've been a missionary for four months and one day today! That's over 1/3 of a year. That's CRAZY. It went by so fast... Anyway, after that, we went to a store called Jaya. It has a bunch of American imported stuff, so I stocked up on American things. After that, we went bowling with Gordon, Bryant, and Boyee. It was tons of fun, and I got a strike bowling between my legs. No big deal.

Tuesday... Let's see. We taught a lot of lessons, but I forgot my planner, so I can't remember who we taught. But besides that, I figured out how to write The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ in Dwarvern (the language in Lord of The Rings that the dwarves write in) while waiting for Shena to show up to her lesson, and we got a bunch of Book of Mormons (Elder Forsyth thinks they're Books of Mormon) that we had to drag back to the apartment. We also saw Professor Beethoven (Doctor Carl, the American that teaches at a nearby university and stays in the same apartment building as us), and invited him to learn about the Book of Mormon. He's a devout southern Baptist, so he wasn't interested. It was a good try though!

Wednesday, we went over to Ariz's and figured out he had someone that could cover for him on Sundays so he could come to church! I care more about Ariz than I care about any other Malaysian. I feel like I'm basically related to him. I don't know why. He's seriously the nicest guy ever. It turns out his boss doesn't trust the person that could cover for him though, so he can't come to church yet. I wasn't too happy, but Ariz said he was just going to ditch work next Sunday and come anyway, just to make a point. We'll see what happens! Hopefully he doesn't get fired! He's determined to come to church though.

Thursday... hmmm. Oh, we ALMOST went tracting, but then it started DUMPING rain. I've never seen it rain so much. My shoes were doing a really good job at keeping the rain out until the streets started flooding and the water went over my ankles. It was like a mini river. It was the most epic thing of my life. Instead of tracting, we just walked people across the street under our umbrellas and contacted them while we did that. It was actually a ton of fun. The gutters were full, and the gutters here are like 6 feet deep. It was awesome. I really wish I had brought my planner so I could tell you who we taught... Oh! We taught Keke and Nicholas! They're doing awesome! We literally just have to teach them all the lessons, and they can be baptized. They’ve set the date for December 3^rd! I can't wait! Neither can Elder Forsyth or them. We told them that if they didn't come to church for the next 3 weeks in a row, they couldn't be baptized this transfer. They had things planned for Sunday, but the minute we said they had to come to church, they cancelled everything and said they were coming! So that was AWESOME. Elder Forsyth and I just started laughing because we were so happy about how serious they were about baptism. I can't wait! It'll be great!

Friday... Let's see. Oh! We taught Cedric! It was awesome! He used to smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day, now he's down to 1/2 a pack a day. He's determined to quit. He's moving to Penang in a bit for a couple weeks, then in January, he's moving to Australia. We probably won't be able to baptize him in Puchong, but he'll be baptized somewhere else! I'm super excited for that. He's such a great guy. He was doing chiropractic stuff on Elder Forsyth, and let me just say, I've never heard a neck pop as loud as Elder Forsyth's popped. It was awesome. I laugh whenever he pops our bones. I don't know why. Getting your spine perfectly aligned feels amazing for a few days before it goes back to normal. He says if he can fix our back 4 more times, they'll stay if we do stretches he tells us to do. Bryant followed us around pretty much all day, so that was awesome.

Saturday, we had English class, and found two people that wanted to learn more about the gospel, so we were super excited. We ended up teaching them Sunday. I'll give more details later. After English, the Chinese Elders had a BAPTISM! Phoebe's baptism. It was awesome. The service was in Chinese, and I actually understood some of it. I taught Elder Forsyth how to say a prayer in Chinese, and then he said the closing prayer. Everyone was shocked, because they didn't know he could say a prayer in Chinese. After the baptism, we ate a bunch of food, and I hung out with Bryan and Jun Jun. Bryan is 5, and he's the wildest little kid I've met in my entire life. He can only speak Chinese, so he goes off in Chinese, and I pretend I can understand. I'll send a picture I took with him. Jun Jun is 3 or 4, and she's the cutest little Chinese girl you'll ever meet. We have a secret handshake we do, and she even remembered my name! Which I can't believe! We played the piano together, and talked, and did a bunch of fun stuff. I'll send a picture with her too.

Sunday, we taught the two people from English class, Harshaa and Wei Xuan. They both came to church, and both said they felt good at church, but didn't understand anything. So that was awesome. We're meeting with them Tuesday. We just had a Q&A about church really. After that, we taught Keke and Nicholas, which was fun. We reviewed prophets, and taught the 10 commandments. then we ran over to the mall with Sister Saffron to teach Daniel. Daniel was kind of a miracle contact. We said hi to him right as he was getting off the train, then said, "We teach people about Jesus Christ. Do you want to learn more?" He was really interested in learning about Jesus, so we got off the train with him, got his contact info, and set an appointment for Sunday. We went and taught him. He's got some major potential, and he's a pretty heavy dude. We're going to need a bigger baptismal font if we baptize him. I can't wait. He was super solid. When we taught him the restoration, he said he felt really good about it.

We hopped on a bus to visit a less active after teaching Daniel, and 10 minutes into the ride, I saw a sign that said "Kelana Jaya KTM Station". That might not seem like a big deal to most people, but it turns out, this bus headed right out of our area, and it was about an hour-long train ride back to our area. We were freaking out, called the ZL's and told them what happened, and then made the long journey back on the train to our area. We probably could've walked back and had it take just as long, but the train ride was nice, because we talked to people on the way back. From now on we're always going to double check where the bus is going. It was a good experience to learn from! We went to Sister Saffron's for dinner, taught a quick lesson, and she set out to find a full Chinese name for me and for Elder Forsyth. So maybe next week, I'll have a full Chinese name instead of just Elder Wood (mu is wood in Mandarin. The funny thing is, Mu Ling is like a jungle. So really, I could be Elder Jungle. Elder Wood also can though.)

I've been loving my mission. It's been great! I look forward to every day, and Puchong is just getting better and better! The Zone Leaders had nothing but praise for us because us and the Chinese elders here are on FIRE. We're doing great. I love Puchong. LUCKILY, I'll stay for one more transfer (hopefully). The transfer is already half way over, and I'm most likely going to spend most of the week after this one in Singapore, so really, there are only 2 weeks left for me in this transfer! That'll be crazy! Visa runs and Zone Conference. My chop for my visa actually ends next Monday, so I won't be able to email until late probably, and then we have Zone Conference there Wednesday through Friday morning. Thanks for your support! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins