Elder Ben Mullins: Building Up That Teaching Pool

Hey Everyone!

This week went by really fast, and we didn't even teach a ton of lessons! That was pretty crazy! We ended up dropping everyone we were teaching, so we have a fresh slate, and we're finding some really good people now! Malaysia is great, I'm still famous here, and it's always fun to go out and do missionary work!

Monday, we took some pictures for P Day for a Christmas card to send to everyone in the branch! It's pretty awesome. It was actually a lot of fun to think of a bunch of ideas, but we finally settled on one. I'll send the picture once my family gets the picture in the mail. Other than that, we didn't do a ton on Monday. We just talked with people mostly.

Tuesday morning, we got a call from Winson, an inactive in the branch, and he was SOBBING. We couldn't understand anything he was saying, so we told him we'd run over to his work and talk with him there. We got ready as fast as we could, and ran to a hotel nearby. We got there, called him, and he says, "Nevermind, it solved itself. We're good." We just went back home and started our studies. We thought he was dying or something, and then it turned out nothing really happened. When we got home, we made up a story to tell to the Chinese Elders. We told a horror story, and the Chinese Elders totally believed it until I started laughing. They were freaking out saying, "NO WAY! THAT DID NOT HAPPEN!", but then we kept going on and they'd keep believing it. It was hilarious.

Later in the day, we painted a member's house white. It was a ton of fun to paint for a few hours, and the house looked good. We just had to put a few more coats of paint on the next day and it'd be finished. After we finished painting, we taught a funny little family; Ann, Vincent, and their boy, Vanness. They're such a funny family. Ann and Vincent want their son to grow up to be like the missionaries, and they decided they'd meet with us and learn why we are the way we are. My favorite question they asked was: "So you guys don't worship any statues of Jesus or anything?" They were super surprised that we don't worship statues of Jesus... Roman Catholics... Anyway, they miiiiight have potential. They came for the wrong reasons, but they might stay because they realize that they need the gospel!

Wednesday, we finished painting the house in about an hour, had some Malaysian pizza (not even close to as good as American pizza), then went contacting until our lesson with Keke and Nicholas. We had an awesome lesson on how they can continue to learn and grow, and we ended up setting up family home evening with them for the next year! Every single Monday, including tonight, we're going to go to Keke and Nicholas's house for family night! It'll be great! I'm excited! They're awesome members. Members that Elder Forsyth and I BAPTIZED!!!

Thursday was a great day. Everything with contacting kind of clicked on Thursday. I finally get it. Before, I had a hard time genuinely caring about everyone I talked to, but somehow, I found a way to really care about everyone we talk to. And it has made my contacting really effective. It's been great! We had a ton of success on Thursday with contacting, and we met a lot of people that I really connected with. Throughout the week, we've had the same success! Our teaching pool should be bigger by next week!

Friday, we met with George, one of our recent converts. It turns out, he sells gems and otherfor a living. So that's really cool! I thought he was just in school right now, but he does that on the side. We had a cool lesson on the priesthood, and he's pumped to get the priesthood now. He goes to Liberia later this week, so he'll get it after he gets back.

We had English class Friday, and 27 people showed up! It was awesome! We got a few new investigators out of it too! Most of them only speak Chinese. Well, all but one actually, so we got a new investigator named Joyse, and the Chinese Elders got a lot of new investigators.

Saturday, we had English class again, and got another new investigator! Her name is Yeun! She's awesome. After English class, she asked if we needed help with anything, and we told her we were just going to make Christmas cards, and she helped us make all of the cards! Then she asked if we needed anymore help, and we said we didn't, but the Chinese Elders said she could go contacting with them if she wanted. So guess what? She did! She went contacting with the Chinese Elders. She's Buddhist, but talked to everyone they walked past about Christianity and why it's something they should learn about. She's going be an awesome missionary once we get her baptized! She just hung out with the missionaries all day until our Christmas party at night! We had a great Christmas party, and we had a lot of investigators from our area and the Chinese area show up! It was a lot of fun too!

Sunday... Let's see. Oh, we just talked with people all day after church. At night, Sister Saffron had us over for dinner, and brought an investigator, Joyse, along with her! So that was awesome! Saffron is an awesome member missionary. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was a really good lesson! Other than that, Sunday was pretty uneventful!

This week flew by! And I've already been out for over 5 months! That's INSANE! I can't believe it! I love you all, and I hope you have an awesome week! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Ben Mullins